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      The plant microbiome and its importance for plant and human health

      editorial

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          Abstract

          To study plant-associated microorganisms has a long history that reaches back to Lorenz Hiltner's definition of the rhizosphere in 1904 (Hartmann et al., 2008). Today, we know that microorganisms colonizing plant surfaces and inner tissues play an eminent role in shaping of our planet—from our natural vegetation to intense agricultural production systems up to human health. Plant-associated microorganisms have to be considered as key drivers for plant health, productivity, community composition, and ecosystem functioning. For this e-book “The plant microbiome and its importance for plant and human health” we collected 18 articles, including reviews, original, and opinion articles that highlight the current knowledge regarding plant microbiomes, their specificity, diversity, and function as well as all aspects studying the management of plant microbiomes to improve plant performance and health. The contribution of the single articles of this research topic to these questions is discussed in detail in the mini-review and 1st chapter of the book by Berg et al. (2014a). Overall the presented articles confirm that the plant-associated microbiome has greatly expanded the metabolic repertoire of plants and often increase resource uptake and provide novel nutritional and defense pathways. Thus, the plant microbiome has a direct impact on plant functional traits, such as leaf longevity, specific leaf area, leaf nutrient levels, and shoot/root ratio. By providing novel nutritional and defense pathways and by modifying biochemical pathways, the plant associated microbiome can enhance or decrease species coexistence and consequently influence not only a single plant but complete ecosystems. Thus, future breeding strategies may take the importance of plant-microbe interactions more into account than in the past, to obtain plants that generate high yields and are more tolerate to the constraints of global change. Studies related to raw-eaten vegetables are a special show case in this e-book. Here the plant-associated microbiome does not only influence plant performance but strongly contributes to human health. As those microbes are also part of our diet they can either improve human health (Blaser et al., 2013) or cause heavy outbreaks of infectious diseases by transferring possible pathogens (Van Overbeek et al., 2014). Interestingly, the gathered manuscripts indicate that microbiomes of different environments are not isolated but show interplay. For example, the microbiome of vegetables, humans as well as build environment such as hospitals seems to be well-connected (Berg et al., 2014b). Thus, maintaining microbial diversity in the different environments is an important issue to avoid pathogen outbreaks, which can be often explained by microbial imbalances and poorness (Van Elsas et al., 2012), confirming basic theories of ecology that a loss of native species enhances the probability of invasive species to colonize new environments. Therefore, to maintain and support microbial diversity is of interest to stabilize ecosystems and their resilience toward biotic and abiotic stressors. Biotechnological solutions like probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics for plants as well as humans can provide support for the indigenous microbiome (De Vrese and Schrezenmeir, 2008). The most significant recent advances in plant microbiology involve interdisciplinary approaches that link different methodological approaches including omics-technologies. Due to the new methods available and interdisciplinary research cooperation we have the chance to solve many problems of a changing world, but also to address basic hypotheses and questions of microbial ecology and host microbe interactions. Integrating epigenetics in multi-omics techniques opens existing opportunities for new discoveries (Chen et al., 2014). Therefore, we think this comprehensive e-book especially the many reviews can contribute to hold the current knowledge in our hand. This is a very exciting but also challenging time for all researchers in this field. Major advances will come rapidly! Conflict of interest statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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          Microbial diversity determines the invasion of soil by a bacterial pathogen.

          Natural ecosystems show variable resistance to invasion by alien species, and this resistance can relate to the species diversity in the system. In soil, microorganisms are key components that determine life support functions, but the functional redundancy in the microbiota of most soils has long been thought to overwhelm microbial diversity-function relationships. We here show an inverse relationship between soil microbial diversity and survival of the invading species Escherichia coli O157:H7, assessed by using the marked derivative strain T. The invader's fate in soil was determined in the presence of (i) differentially constructed culturable bacterial communities, and (ii) microbial communities established using a dilution-to-extinction approach. Both approaches revealed a negative correlation between the diversity of the soil microbiota and survival of the invader. The relationship could be explained by a decrease in the competitive ability of the invader in species-rich vs. species-poor bacterial communities, reflected in the amount of resources used and the rate of their consumption. Soil microbial diversity is a key factor that controls the extent to which bacterial invaders can establish.
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            Unraveling the plant microbiome: looking back and future perspectives

            Most eukaryotes develop close interactions with microorganisms that are essential for their performance and survival. Thus, eukaryotes and prokaryotes in nature can be considered as meta-organisms or holobionts. Consequently, microorganisms that colonize different plant compartments contain the plant’s second genome. In this respect, many studies in the last decades have shown that plant-microbe interactions are not only crucial for better understanding plant growth and health, but also for sustainable crop production in a changing world. This mini-review acting as editorial presents retrospectives and future perspectives for plant microbiome studies as well as information gaps in this emerging research field. In addition, the contribution of this research topic to the solution of various issues is discussed.
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              Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics.

              According to the German definition, probiotics are defined viable microorganisms, sufficient amounts of which reach the intestine in an active state and thus exert positive health effects. Numerous probiotic microorganisms (e.g. Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, L. reuteri, bifidobacteria and certain strains of L. casei or the L. acidophilus-group) are used in probiotic food, particularly fermented milk products, or have been investigated--as well as Escherichia coli strain Nissle 1917, certain enterococci (Enterococcus faecium SF68) and the probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii--with regard to their medicinal use. Among the numerous purported health benefits attributed to probiotic bacteria, the (transient) modulation of the intestinal microflora of the host and the capacity to interact with the immune system directly or mediated by the autochthonous microflora, are basic mechanisms. They are supported by an increasing number of in vitro and in vivo experiments using conventional and molecular biologic methods. In addition to these, a limited number of randomized, well-controlled human intervention trials have been reported. Well-established probiotic effects are: 1. Prevention and/or reduction of duration and complaints of rotavirus-induced or antibiotic-associated diarrhea as well as alleviation of complaints due to lactose intolerance. 2. Reduction of the concentration of cancer-promoting enzymes and/or putrefactive (bacterial) metabolites in the gut. 3. Prevention and alleviation of unspecific and irregular complaints of the gastrointestinal tracts in healthy people. 4. Beneficial effects on microbial aberrancies, inflammation and other complaints in connection with: inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, Helicobacter pylori infection or bacterial overgrowth. 5. Normalization of passing stool and stool consistency in subjects suffering from obstipation or an irritable colon. 6. Prevention or alleviation of allergies and atopic diseases in infants. 7. Prevention of respiratory tract infections (common cold, influenza) and other infectious diseases as well as treatment of urogenital infections. Insufficient or at most preliminary evidence exists with respect to cancer prevention, a so-called hypocholesterolemic effect, improvement of the mouth flora and caries prevention or prevention or therapy of ischemic heart diseases or amelioration of autoimmune diseases (e.g. arthritis). A prebiotic is "a selectively fermented ingredient that allows specific changes, both in the composition and/or activity in the gastrointestinal microflora that confers benefits upon host well being and health", whereas synergistic combinations of pro- and prebiotics are called synbiotics. Today, only bifidogenic, non-digestible oligosaccharides (particularly inulin, its hydrolysis product oligofructose, and (trans)galactooligosaccharides), fulfill all the criteria for prebiotic classification. They are dietary fibers with a well-established positive impact on the intestinal microflora. Other health effects of prebiotics (prevention of diarrhoea or obstipation, modulation of the metabolism of the intestinal flora, cancer prevention, positive effects on lipid metabolism, stimulation of mineral adsorption and immunomodulatory properties) are indirect, i.e. mediated by the intestinal microflora, and therefore less-well proven. In the last years, successful attempts have been reported to make infant formula more breast milk-like by the addition of fructo- and (primarily) galactooligosaccharides.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Microbiol
                Front Microbiol
                Front. Microbiol.
                Frontiers in Microbiology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-302X
                17 September 2014
                2014
                : 5
                : 491
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Environmental Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology Graz, Austria
                [2] 2Plant Sciences, University of Graz Graz, Austria
                [3] 3Environmental Genomics, Helmholtz Zentrum München Neuherberg, Germany
                [4] 4Julius Kühn-Institut, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Epidemiology and Pathogen Diagnostics Braunschweig, Germany
                Author notes

                This article was submitted to Plant-Microbe Interaction, a section of the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

                Edited by: Gail Preston, University of Oxford, UK

                Reviewed by: Penny Hirsch, Rothamsted Research, UK

                Article
                10.3389/fmicb.2014.00491
                4166366
                25278934
                89a315c4-c600-4800-a773-b874d2d861a1
                Copyright © 2014 Berg, Grube, Schloter and Smalla.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 30 July 2014
                : 29 August 2014
                Page count
                Figures: 0, Tables: 0, Equations: 0, References: 8, Pages: 2, Words: 1110
                Categories
                Plant Science
                Editorial Article

                Microbiology & Virology
                plant microbiome,bacterial communities,endophytes,omics technologies,fish technology,biocontrol,stress control,plant-microbe interaction

                Comments

                This paper is the editorial for an e-book on this topic which can be downoaded from Frontiers at

                http://www.frontiersin.org/books/The_plant_microbiome_and_its_importance_for_plant_and_human_health/418

                the collection of 18 articles is demonstrate the concept that  related plant and human microbes play an important role in role in maintaining health. One of the articles, Beneficial effects of plant-associated microbes on indoor microbiomes and human health makes the point that ecosystems of microbes in soil are related to microbial communities in other environments like the human gut as they are  transfered via the food chainAs a consequence I think there is a need to maintain our soils healthy with healthy microbial communities, in order to maintain our own (human) health

                see the following papers in this collection

                Beneficial effects of plant-associated microbes on indoor microbiomes and human health?

                21st century agriculture: integration of plant microbiomes for improved crop production and food securityBiofertilizers function as key player in sustainable agriculture by improving soil fertility, plant tolerance and crop productivity

                2015-08-14 13:37 UTC
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