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Microbe-dependent heterosis in maize

View ORCID ProfileMaggie R. Wagner, Clara Tang, View ORCID ProfileFernanda Salvato, Kayla M. Clouse, Alexandria Bartlett, Shannon Sermons, Mark Hoffmann, View ORCID ProfilePeter J. Balint-Kurti, View ORCID ProfileManuel Kleiner
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.05.078766
Maggie R. Wagner
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045
2Kansas Biological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045
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  • For correspondence: maggie.r.wagner@ku.edu
Clara Tang
3Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
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Fernanda Salvato
3Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
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Kayla M. Clouse
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045
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Alexandria Bartlett
3Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
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Shannon Sermons
4Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
5Plant Science Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Raleigh, NC 27695
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Mark Hoffmann
6Department of Horticulture, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
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Peter J. Balint-Kurti
4Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
5Plant Science Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Raleigh, NC 27695
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Manuel Kleiner
3Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
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  • ORCID record for Manuel Kleiner
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SUMMARY

Hybrids account for nearly all commercially planted varieties of maize and many other crop plants, because crosses between inbred lines of these species produce F1 offspring that greatly outperform their parents. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, called heterosis or hybrid vigor, are not well understood despite over a century of intensive research (Birchler et al. 2003). The leading hypotheses—which focus on quantitative genetic mechanisms (dominance, overdominance, and epistasis) and molecular mechanisms (gene dosage and transcriptional regulation)—have been able to explain some but not all of the observed patterns of heterosis (Stuber et al. 1992; Birchler 2015). However, possible ecological drivers of heterosis have largely been ignored. Here we show that heterosis of root biomass and germination in maize is strongly dependent on the belowground microbial environment. We found that, in some cases, inbred lines perform as well by these criteria as their F1 offspring under sterile conditions, but that heterosis can be restored by inoculation with a simple community of seven bacterial strains. We observed the same pattern for seedlings inoculated with autoclaved vs. live soil slurries in a growth chamber, and for plants grown in fumigated vs. untreated soil in the field. Together, our results demonstrate a novel, ecological mechanism for heterosis whereby soil microbes generally impair the germination and early growth of inbred but not hybrid maize.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted May 07, 2020.
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Microbe-dependent heterosis in maize
Maggie R. Wagner, Clara Tang, Fernanda Salvato, Kayla M. Clouse, Alexandria Bartlett, Shannon Sermons, Mark Hoffmann, Peter J. Balint-Kurti, Manuel Kleiner
bioRxiv 2020.05.05.078766; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.05.078766
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Microbe-dependent heterosis in maize
Maggie R. Wagner, Clara Tang, Fernanda Salvato, Kayla M. Clouse, Alexandria Bartlett, Shannon Sermons, Mark Hoffmann, Peter J. Balint-Kurti, Manuel Kleiner
bioRxiv 2020.05.05.078766; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.05.078766

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