01/06/2023
Michal Slota -
“Tradeoffs of crop domestication - better yield, less microbes ⚖️🌾
📚 In agriculture, domestication is the process of selection of the best trait with increased adaptation or acclimatization of the plant. Most domesticated crop species share common traits such as increased yield and seed size and decreased dormancy and seed shattering.
🦠 However, there is evidence that domestication processes have profoundly altered the interactions between plant hosts and associated microorganisms.
👨🌾 It has been shown that wild ancestors and primitive landraces of wheat, breadfruit, and maize can benefit more from mycorrhizal symbiosis. Studies on other plants species, including Arabidopsis, sugar beet, barley and lettuce also suggested that human-centered breeding led to compositional changes in root-associated microbiomes
🌱 Wild relative crops can be characterized by:
-> a better adaptation to environmental stresses,
-> a balanced growth–defense trade-off,
-> a rich associated microbiome,
-> BUT usually a lower yield.
🌾 Domesticated crops exhibit:
-> improved productivity,
-> BUT reduced stress resilience and ability to recruit plant-associated microbes.
🎯 Plant‐associated microbiomes have a great potential to improve plant resilience and yields in farming systems, thus the traits associated with the recruitment of specific consortia could be also promising targets in breeding programs.
📷 Image: Comparison of microbial relations of wild (left) and domesticated (right) crop species (credits: Nerva et al. 2022; Trends in Plant Science).
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