Focus on seedling microbiota colonization 🦠🚩🔬 Plants establish complex relationships with diverse microorganisms that form the plant microbiota, which significantly influences seedling emergence, growth, and pathogen resistance.🌱 Seeds carry both endophytic (residing in internal plant tissues) and epiphytic microorganisms (living non-parasitically on the surface of plant organs) that are transmitted from:- parent plants (from the mother plant root and the above-ground tissues),- atmospheric exposure,- pollinator interactions.🔄 The spermosphere, a dynamic zone of soil surrounding germinating seeds, serves as the crucial interface where seed and soil microbiota interact during the initial colonization process.⌬ Seed exudates, including primary metabolites and specialized antimicrobial compounds (e.g. alkaloids, antibiotics, terpenoids, andpeptides), create a unique chemical environment in the spermosphere that influences microbial colonization patterns.🌾 Early plant development stages are particularly vulnerable to pathogens, making the establishment of beneficial microbiota crucial for crop success.🛡️ The plant immune system's development plays a significant role in microbiota assembly, with early seedling stages showing immune permissivity before transitioning to a mature immune response.⚖️ The success of microbial colonization depends on the balance between stress tolerance and competitive ability in the spermosphere environment, favoring microorganisms with high ROS-processing catalase activity.👨🌾 Different approaches to microbial inoculation, each selected for different microbial traits and survival strategies:-> seed coating inocula - need to be selected for stress-tolerance traits such as spore formation and desiccation tolerance,-> biopriming (that rely on soaking seeds into a microbial suspension) - inoculant formulation efforts are focused on colonisation traits.Image: seedling microbiota assembly and microbe-driven plant-beneficial effects (credits: Joubert et al. 2025; DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2024.09.004).#microbiome #seedsThis article supports the concept of "seed memory". Seed produced by chemical Ag, grow better in chemical systemsSeed produced in an Organic system produce better in Organically managed soils.Organic farmers have known for decades that microbial colonization is the lifeblood of Organic farming, which is why we don't use inputs that kill microbial life in the soil. https://t.me/plantprotectionTAU