Emmy Noether Group Leader
Root Functional Biology, INRES, University of Bonn
Römerstr. 164, 53117 Bonn, Germany Bonn, Germany, GERMANY
Drought stress, a major threat to global crop productivity, severely limits plant survival, especially in arid environments. Desiccation tolerance, a key adaptive trait conserved across Poaceae grasses, remains poorly understood, particularly in relation to its interactions with the rhizosphere microbiota. In this study, we investigated desiccation tolerance across 227 Poaceae species, representing a wide range of phylogenetic lineages and geographic distributions. We employed an integrated approach combining host phylogeny, biogeographic traits, and rhizosphere microbiome profiling to uncover the evolutionary basis of desiccation tolerance. Using 16S rRNA sequencing, we systematically characterized the rhizosphere microbiome to identify drought-resilient microbial taxa and explore their functional associations with plant desiccation tolerance. Our findings reveal phylogenetically conserved patterns of microbial recruitment linked to drought adaptation. Additionally, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonization assays demonstrated the presence and intensity of AMF interactions, highlighting the critical role of Poaceae-AMF partnerships in enhancing drought resilience in arid ecosystems. By correlating microbial community composition with plant drought resilience, this study provides new insights into the microbiome-mediated desiccation tolerance hypothesis.
