Strategies and Structure Feature of the Aboveground and Belowground Microbial Community Respond to Drought in Wild Rice (Oryza longistaminata)

Background: Drought is global environmental stress that limits crop yields. Plant-associated microbiomes play a crucial role in determining plant fitness in response to drought, yet the fundamental mechanisms for maintaining microbial community stability under drought disturbances in wild rice are poorly understood. We make explicit comparisons of leaf, stem, root and rhizosphere microbiomes from the drought-tolerant wild rice (Oryza longistaminata) in response to drought stress.

Results: We find that the response of the wild rice microbiome to drought was divided into aboveground-underground patterns. Drought reduced the leaf and stem microbial community diversity and networks stability, but not that of the roots and rhizospheres. Contrary to the aboveground microbial networks, the drought-negative response taxa exhibited much closer interconnections than the drought-positive response taxa and were the dominant network hubs of belowground co-occurrence networks, which may contribute to the stability of the belowground network. Notably, drought induces enrichment of Actinobacteria in belowground compartments, but not the aboveground compartment. Additionally, the rhizosphere microbiome exhibited a higher proportion of generalists and broader habitat niche breadth than the microbiome at other compartments, and drought enhanced the proportion of specialists in all compartments. Null model analysis revealed that both the aboveground and belowground-community were governed primarily by the stochastic assembly process, moreover, drought decreased 'dispersal limitation', and enhanced 'drift'.

Conclusions: Our results provide new insight into the different strategies and assembly mechanisms of the above and belowground microbial community in response to drought, including enrichment of taxonomic groups, and highlight the important role of the stochastic assembly process in shaping microbial community under drought stress.