Temperature drives the assembly of endophytic communities' seasonal succession

Summary Endophytic microorganisms asymptomatically colonise plant tissues. Exploring the assembly dynamics of bacterial endophytic communities is essential to understand the functioning of the plant holobiont and to optimise their possible use as biopesticides or plant biostimulants. We studied the variation in endophytic communities in above and below-ground organs in Vitis vinifera in the field. To understand the specific effect of temperature on endophytic communities, a separate experiment was set up where grapevine cuttings were grown under controlled conditions at three different temperatures. Our findings reveal the succession of endophytic communities over the year. Endophytic communities of roots and stems differ in terms of composition and dynamic response to temperature. Noticeably, compositional differences during the seasons affected bacterial taxa more in stems than in roots, suggesting that roots offer a more stable and less easily perturbed environment. Correlation abundance networks showed that the presence of several taxa (including Bradyrhizobium, Burkholderia, Dyella, Mesorhizobium, Propionibacterium, and Ralstonia) is linked in both the field and the greenhouse. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.