Format: ORAL

Emma Aronson1, Jon Botthoff1, Pilar Catalan2

1 University of California, Riverside, CA, USA 2 Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain

In the last few decades, Brachypodium distachyon has emerged as a model grass to study fundamental topics in plant biology, including seed development, genomics, plant-pathogen interactions, and root architecture. This temperate grass is closely related to important biofuel crops, such as sorghum and switchgrass. Another research advantage of B. distachyon is that there are wild, naturally occurring isolates in its broad native circum-Mediterranean range. Not only are the species of the B. distachyon complex found across the native range, but they have been introduced to the US, Australia, China, South Africa and South America, and are invasive in some of these areas, notably Southern California. Although there has been a number of recent research articles on the genomic architecture and microbiome of Brachypodium species, there remains a dearth of information on associated rhizosphere microorganisms. In order to better understand the microbial associations of the B. distachyon complex, we sampled root, rhizosphere, and bulk microbiomes of B. distachyon and hybridum across their native and invaded ranges, including 4 countries across Mediterranean Europe, as well as B. hybridum from California in the United States. Here we describe the variability in the wild microbiome of this important grass. Brachypodium hybridum is a rampant invasive grass across coastal California, and a contributor to fire danger and severity. This data may help us to better understand the invasive qualities of this grass, and potentially could lead to mitigation strategies, which may improve fire conditions in California. Further, we hope that generating model grass microbiome data will contribute to a growing global scientific community working on cereal and biofuels crop genetics, and beyond.