Enhanced Preprints

Root cap cell corpse clearance limits microbial colonization in Arabidopsis thaliana

  1. Nyasha M. Charura
  2. Ernesto Llamas
  3. Concetta De Quattro
  4. David Vilchez
  5. Moritz K. Nowack
  6. Alga Zuccaro author has email address
  1. Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Cologne, D-50674 Cologne, Germany
  2. Cologne Excellence Cluster for Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases (CECAD), University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany
  3. Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC), University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany
  4. Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germany
  5. Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Ghent University, 9052 Ghent, Belgium
  6. VIB Center for Plant Systems Biology, 9052 Ghent, Belgium

Peer review process

Not revised: This Reviewed Preprint includes the authors’ original preprint (without revision), an eLife assessment, and public reviews.

Read more about eLife’s peer review process.

Editors

  • Reviewing Editor
    Thabiso Motaung
    University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
  • Senior Editor
    Jürgen Kleine-Vehn
    University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

Reviewer #1 (Public Review):

Summary:

The study investigated how root cap cell corpse removal affects the ability of microbes to colonize Arabidopsis thaliana plants. The findings demonstrate how programmed cell death and its control in root cap cells affect the establishment of symbiotic relationships between plants and fungi. Key details on molecular mechanisms and transcription factors involved are also given. The study suggests reevaluating microbiome assembly from the root tip, thus challenging traditional ideas about this process. While the work presents a key foundation, more research along the root axis is recommended to gain a better understanding of the spatial and temporal aspects of microbiome recruitment.

Reviewer #2 (Public Review):

Summary:

The authors identify the root cap as an important key region for establishing microbial symbioses with roots. By highlighting for the first time the crucial importance of tight regulation of a specific form of programmed cell death of root cap cells and the clearance of their cell corpses, they start unraveling the molecular mechanisms and its regulation at the root cap (e.g. by identifying an important transcription factor) for the establishment of symbioses with fungi (and potentially also bacterial microbiomes).

Strengths:

It is often believed that the recruitment of plant microbiomes occurs from bulk soil to rhizosphere to endosphere. These authors demonstrate that we have to re-think microbiome assembly as a process starting and regulated at the root tip and proceeding along the root axis.

Weaknesses:

The study is a first crucial starting point to investigate the spatial recruitment of beneficial microorganisms along the root axis of plants. It identifies e.g. an important transcription factor for programmed cell death, but more detailed investigations along the root axis are now needed to better understand - spatially and temporally - the orchestration of microbiome recruitment.

  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  2. Wellcome Trust
  3. Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
  4. Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation