Plants also use microbiome diversity for health

We all know that the human microbiome plays an important role in our health. Now an interesting study published in the journal Nature shows how plants select which microbes live inside their leaves for their health. This is the first study of microbes and the phyllosphere (the total above ground portion of a plant).

Scientists from Michigan State University found that both plants and animals may share a similar ‘strategy to control their microbiomes’. The scientists found a mechanism that involves 2 genetic networks, one involving the plant immune system and the other the hydration levels inside leaves. Both networks were found to work together to select which microbes survive inside the plant’s leaves, when both networks were removed from a plant the microbiome inside the plant’s leaves changed resulting in the amount and type of bacteria to change causing tissue damage much like the changes in humans that result in inflammatory bowel disease.