Rising temperatures lead to billions of dollars of crop losses each year, contributing to increased food costs and widespread malnutrition. Decades of research establish foundational principles of plant responses to elevated temperature and, separately, plant responses to individual microbes. However, we currently have little understanding of how higher order interactions impact plant health. Further, we do not yet know how three-way interactions between plants, microbiota, and abiotic factors change under altered climatic conditions. To address this knowledge gap, my research examines plant responses to elevated temperatures across Arabidopsis ecotypes with and without microbiota colonization. My results show that temperature-sensitive ecotypes have reduced cuticle barrier function at elevated temperature with microbiota colonization, while some temperature-resilient ecotypes have robust cuticle barrier function. Intriguingly, my results also suggest that these differences may be linked to plant immune response regulation. Using molecular, biochemical, and machine learning approaches, my work will identify plant gene targets in temperature-resilient ecotypes that could be used to improve crop responses to elevated temperatures. This approach will provide a basic understanding of three-way interactions in a changing climate and has the potential to produce new technologies for the purpose of improving plant health and ensuring food security for a growing global population.
