This repository contains the data used in statistical analysis and the analaysis scripts for the publication described below. Abstract of the manuscript: Microbes can play an important role in supporting sustainable agriculture, by contributing to plant disease suppression and abiotic stress tolerance. To develop microbiome-based management strategies, we need to understand origins and dynamics of microbes in relevant plant tissues. To better manage apple canker disease (Neonectria ditissima), the understanding of the microbiome at the leaf scar infection point is paramount, to develop strategies for increasing abundance of specific beneficial and biocontrol microbes. Three experiments were conducted to study the temporal dynamics of microbes in apple leaf scars of different maturity and infer microbiome origins. All results suggested that the airborne inoculum is the most important factor continuously influencing leaf scar associated communities across the growing season. By exposing plants to different environment at the different time during the season, we showed the importance of the most recent local airborne inoculum as the source of leaf scar communities at a given time. Results indicated that leaf scar associated communities are changing at a faster rate during active growing season than previously believed, likely as a response to changes in leaf scar niche, changes in airborne inoculum composition and/or environmental conditions. In addition to translocation of microbes within plant tissues, continuous recruitment of microbes from local environment was shown to be the most likely driver for leaf scar microbiome recruitment in the actively growing aboveground tissues. Airborne inoculum changes could also explain some of the dynamics in leaf scar microbiomes over the winter. Interestingly, microbiome trajectories over time differed sightly in different apple genotypes (cultivars). The results suggested that changing environmental microbiome sources, i.e. spray augmentation, could be a viable route to introduce beneficial microbes in woody perennials for sustainable crop protection and production.
Rupar et al. (Mon,) studied this question.