Genetic basis of microbiome recruitment in pea roots challenged by root rot disease

Summary

Legumes play a crucial role in the shift towards more sustainable protein production, but root rot complexes can cause massive yield losses in many legume crops such as pea. The pea root rot complex (PRRC) is caused by various soil borne pathogens that likely act synergistically and influence the composition of the rhizosphere microbiome (Wille et al., 2021). As there is genotypic variation in the abundance of key PRRC taxa and disease susceptibility, we aimed to investigate the genotype effect on the root microbiome composition affecting plant health. This crucial interaction between the plant genotype and its associated microbiome, also known as the holobiont, has the potential to lead to increased resistance to PRRC.