MODELING THE MICROBIOME: Using synthetic communities of microbes to colonize Arabidopsis plants grown in a sterile substrate—the botanical equivalent of germ-free mice—researchers can begin to understand how the microbiome affects plant health. © SIMON FRASER/SCIENCE SOURCE
A few years ago, as a postdoc in the lab of Paul Schulze-Lefert at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany, I used next-generation sequencing to study the bacterial communities that populate roots of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Although scientists had known for many years that roots interact with a variety of microorganisms, the composition of these communities was still poorly understood. As our sequencing data began rolling in, I was stunned by the staggering taxonomic diversity of bacteria that a single, tiny root can host. Yet there was an order in this apparent chaos. Almost invariably, members of the phyla Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria were enriched, differentiating the root specimens from the surrounding environment.
Subsequent studies by other labs ...
