FERONIA Kinase-Interacting Cell Wall Sensors LRX1/2 Regulate the Plant Rhizosphere Microbiome
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| Authors: | Song, SY; McDonald, KJ; Bhat, A; Chen, MY; Moreira, ZM; Haney, CH |
| Year: | 2025 |
| Journal: | Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. Article Link (DOI) |
| Title: | FERONIA Kinase-Interacting Cell Wall Sensors LRX1/2 Regulate the Plant Rhizosphere Microbiome |
| Abstract: | Plants establish beneficial associations with microbiota, enhancing their resilience to environmental challenges. FERONIA (FER) kinase shapes the microbiome; despite extensive knowledge of FER interactors that regulate development and immunity against pathogens, the specific partners involved in microbiome modulation remain underexplored. Through a reverse genetic screen of Arabidopsis leucine-rich repeat extensin (LRX) genes, which encode FER-interacting cell wall sensors, we found that loss of function of lrx1/2 leads to enriched rhizosphere Pseudomonas, similar to fer mutants. 16S rRNA sequencing revealed that, when grown in natural soil, lrx1/2 and fer-4 have similarly altered rhizosphere microbiomes with decreased bacterial diversity. Notably, lrx1/2 and fer-4 mutants both exhibit growth defects in high pH natural soil that could be rescued by lowering the soil pH and increasing phosphate. Microbiome sequencing under conditions that rescued fer-4 and lrx1/2 stunting showed that the altered microbiome of lrx1/2 and fer-4 persists independently of changes in plant growth. This indicates that FER and LRX1/2 play an integral role in shaping the rhizosphere microbiome.Copyright (c) 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. |
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