Oasis desert farming selects environment-specific date palm root endophytic communities and cultivable bacteria that promote resistance to drought
Type
ArticleAuthors
Cherif, HaneneMarasco, Ramona

Rolli, Eleonora

Ferjani, Raoudha
Fusi, Marco

Soussi, Asma

Mapelli, Francesca

Blilou, Ikram

Borin, Sara

Boudabous, Abdellatif
Cherif, Ameur

Daffonchio, Daniele

Ouzari, Hadda
KAUST Department
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) DivisionBioscience Program
Environmental Science and Engineering Program
Extreme Systems Microbiology Lab
Red Sea Research Center (RSRC)
Date
2015-07-21Online Publication Date
2015-07-21Print Publication Date
2015-08Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/566005
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Oases are desert-farming agro-ecosystems, where date palm (Phoenix dactyliferaL.) plays a keystone role in offsetting the effects of drought and maintaining a suitable microclimate for agriculture. At present, abundance, diversity and plant growth promotion (PGP) of date palm root-associated bacteria remain unknown. Considering the environmental pressure determined by the water scarcity in the desert environments, we hypothesized that bacteria associated with date palm roots improve plant resistance to drought. Here, the ecology of date palm root endophytes from oases in the Tunisian Sahara was studied with emphasis on their capacity to promote growth under drought. Endophytic communities segregated along a north-south gradient in correlation with geo-climatic parameters. Screening of 120 endophytes indicated that date palm roots select for bacteria with multiple PGP traits. Bacteria rapidly cross-colonized the root tissues of different species of plants, including the original Tunisian date palm cultivar, Saudi Arabian cultivars and Arabidopsis. Selected endophytes significantly increased the biomass of date palms exposed to repeated drought stress periods during a 9-month greenhouse experiment. Overall, results indicate that date palm roots shape endophytic communities that are capable to promote plant growth under drought conditions, thereby contributing an essential ecological service to the entire oasis ecosystem. © 2015 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Citation
Cherif, H., Marasco, R., Rolli, E., Ferjani, R., Fusi, M., Soussi, A., … Ouzari, H. (2015). Oasis desert farming selects environment-specific date palm root endophytic communities and cultivable bacteria that promote resistance to drought. Environmental Microbiology Reports, 7(4), 668–678. doi:10.1111/1758-2229.12304Publisher
WileyPubMed ID
26033617ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1111/1758-2229.12304
Scopus Count
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