Rhizosphere Microbes Influence Host Circadian Clock Function

The circadian clock is an important determinant of fitness that entrained by local conditions. Aside from abiotic factors, individual pathogenic soil bacteria affect function in plant hosts. Yet, nature, plants interact with diverse microbial communities, and the effect complex communities on remains unclear. In Arabidopsis thaliana its wild relative, Boechera stricta, we used rhizosphere inoculates host genotypes to test clock. A. intact microbiome expressed a period closer 24 h duration significantly shorter (by 48 min average) relative grown disrupted microbiome. Wild-type differed sensitivity microbes, one genotype (Landsberg erecta) expressing 119-min difference length across treatments. A similar pattern microbes was observed B. stricta. Finally, collected mutant toc1-21 short-period phenotype as inoculate shortened long-period ztl-1. results indicate function.