Do plants have a microbiome just as humans do?

Submitted by Green-Tesseract t3_110rm4x in askscience

Let me elaborate. I know that plants need the help of bacteria in the soil to fix the nitrogen and some other nutrients, but I asking if a microbiome in the inside of the plants as such exists.

Humans have bacteria in the bowel and some other organs as well inside their bodies. Despite these organs are considered 'the outside' in humans (the digestive tract is just a tube of 'the outside' that goes across our body), they have a characteristic microbiome that mostly only lives there and plays a role in life.

To sum up, my question here is: do plants have bacteria inside them? Like going across their trunks and the sap or even inside the leaves?

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PerspectivePure2169 t1_j8c1uj5 wrote

They do, and it is only just becoming understood. Nitrogen fixing bacteria live inside the plant on and in nodes on the roots, where they exchange nutrients for sugars.

There are also free living nitrogen fixing bacteria that associate with plants within the biofilm they secrete to coat their roots. Plants will also secrete other compounds to recruit bacteria and fungi partners who specialize in extracting certain nutrients the plant is deficient in.

But this process occurs on the surfaces, the tips, and intracellularly within the roots, as well as within special chambers within the roots that host symbiotic fungi.

Each plant species has preferences for the bacteria and fungi it associates with. But they definitely live within the plant, in ways we are just learning.

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Alblaka t1_j8csl5z wrote

It's plants. They grow in the ground in front of us. We've have discovered Agriculture about 10k years ago.

And we still haven't figured out all of the details of how plans actually work.

It's humbling and amusing to think about how we're always dreaming about space, other worlds, or the unexplored deep sea trenches, but could just as well just spend more time studying the grass we're standing on.

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SigerMakkerMeget t1_j8d1pl7 wrote

>And we still haven't figured out all of the details of how plans actually work.

You can say that about basically everything we know. There is always another, deeper level, that we don't really know how it works. We just know the results it produces on the level that we do understand.

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azuth89 t1_j8bxvu6 wrote

Yes, it is in many ways different than ours but they have bacteria on an in them that helps crowd out more harnful organisms and process nutrients, many famously have very tight connections with fungi in their root systems to ferry nutrients and even signals arouns, things along those lines. They also have common but non lethal parasites just like animals in addition to .ore destructive ones.

The details vary with what kind of plant you're talking about.

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Allfunandgaymes t1_j8dozwq wrote

Yes. Absolutely. Plants harbor a myriad of microbes on and within their root tissues. Plant roots aren't simply pipes that suck up water and nutrients - they're plant-soil interfaces that enable plants to do business with soil microbes and establish communication / partnerships with them.

It's why I always recommend gardeners NOT use sterile soil mixes when starting seeds, as many "guides" insist. Plants need an active soil microbiome to thrive. It's why I have a worm bin to provide worm compost for my seedlings - worm poop is rich in soil microbes and nutrients.

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