The root-knot nematodes (genus Meloidogyne) are important plant parasites causing substantial agricultural losses. The Meloidogyne incognita group (MIG) of species, most of which are obligatory apomicts (mitotic parthenogens), are extremely polyphagous and important problems for global agriculture. While understanding the genomic basis for their variable success on different crops could benefit future agriculture, analyses of their genomes are challenging due to complex evolutionary histories that may incorporate hybridization, ploidy changes, and chromosomal fragmentation. Here, we sequence 19 genomes, representing five species of key root-knot nematodes collected from different geographic origins. We show that a hybrid origin that predated speciation within the MIG has resulted in each species possessing two divergent genomic copies. Additionally, the apomictic MIG species are hypotriploids, with a proportion of one genome present in a second copy. The hypotriploid proportion varies among species. The evolutionary history of the MIG genomes is revealed to be very dynamic, with noncrossover recombination both homogenizing the genomic copies, and acting as a mechanism for generating divergence between species. Interestingly, the automictic MIG species M. floridensis differs from the apomict species in that it has become homozygous throughout much of its genome.

Background: Fish skin microbiomes are rarely studied in inland water systems, in spite of their importance for fish health and ecology. This is mainly because fish species distribution often covaries with other biotic and abiotic factors, complicating the study design. We tackled this issue in the northern part of the Jordan River system, in which a few fish species geographically overlap, across steep gradients of water temperature and salinity.Results: Using 16S rRNA metabarcoding, we studied the water properties that shape the skin bacterial communities, and their interaction with fish taxonomy. To better characterise the indigenous skin community, we excluded bacteria that were equally abundant in the skin samples and in the water samples, from our analysis of the skin samples. With this in mind, we found alpha diversity of the skin communities to be stable across sites, but higher in benthic loaches, compared to other fish. Beta diversity was found to be different among sites and to weakly covary with the dissolved oxygen, when treated skin communities were considered. In contrast, water temperature and conductivity were strong factors explaining beta diversity in the untreated skin communities. Beta diversity differences between co-occurring fish species emerged only for the treated skin communities. Metagenomics predictions highlighted the microbiome functional implications of excluding the water community contamination from the fish skin communities. Finally, we found that human-induced eutrophication promotes dysbiosis of the fish skin community, with signatures relating to fish health.Conclusions: Consideration of the background water microbiome when studying fish skin microbiomes, across varying fish species and water properties, exposes patterns otherwise undetected and highlight among-fish-species differences. We suggest that sporadic nutrient pollution events, otherwise undetected, drive fish skin communities to dysbiosis. This finding is in line with a recent study, showing that biofilms capture sporadic pollution events, undetectable by interspersed water monitoring.

The study of high-resolution successional processes within tightly linked microniches is rare. Using the power and relatively low cost of metabarcoding, we describe the bacterial succession and community structure in roots infected with root-knot nematodes and in the nematodes themselves. We reveal separate successional processes in galls and adjacent non-gall root sections, which are driven by the nematode’s life cycle and the progression of the crop season. With their relatively low genetic diversity, large geographic range, spatially complex life cycle, and the simplified agricultural ecosystems they occupy, root-knot nematodes can serve as a model organism for terrestrial holobiont ecology. This perspective can improve our understanding of the temporal and spatial aspects of biological control efficacy.

Background: Halophila stipulaceaseagrass meadows are an ecologically important and threatened component of the ecosystem in the Gulf of Aqaba. Recent studies have demonstrated correlated geographic patterns for leaf epiphytic community composition and leaf morphology, also coinciding with different levels of water turbidity and nutrient concentrations. Based on these observations, workers have suggested an environmental microbial fingerprint, which may reflect various environmental stress factors seagrasses have experienced, and may add a holobiont level of plasticity to seagrasses, assisting their acclimation to changing environments and through range expansion. However, it is difficult to tease apart environmental effects from host-diversity dependent effects, which have covaried in field studies, although this is required in order to establish that differences in microbial community compositions among sites are driven by environmental conditions rather than by features governed by the host.Results: In this study we carried out a mesocosm experiment, in which we studied the effects of warming and nutrient stress on the composition of epiphytic bacterial communities and on some phenological traits. We studiedH. stipulaceacollected from two different meadows in the Gulf of Aqaba, representing differences in the host and the environment alike. We found that the source site from which seagrasses were collected was the major factor governing seagrass phenology, although heat increased shoot mortality and nutrient loading delayed new shoot emergence. Bacterial diversity, however, mostly depended on the environmental conditions. The most prominent pattern was the increase in Rhodobacteraceae under nutrient stress without heat stress, along with an increase in Microtrichaceae. Together, the two taxa have the potential to maintain nitrate reduction followed by an anammox process, which can together buffer the increase in nutrient concentrations across the leaf surface.Conclusions: Our results thus corroborate the existence of environmental microbial fingerprints, which are independent from the host diversity, and support the notion of a holobiont level plasticity, both important to understand and monitorH. stipulaceaecology under the changing climate.

Background: Plant parasitic nematodes such as Meloidogyne incognita have a complex life cycle, occurring sequentially in various niches of the root and rhizosphere. They are known to form a range of interactions with bacteria and other microorganisms, that can affect their densities and virulence. High throughput sequencing can reveal these interactions in high temporal, and geographic resolutions, although thus far we have only scratched the surface. We have carried out a longitudinal sampling scheme, repeatedly collecting rhizosphere soil, roots, galls and second stage juveniles from 20 plants to provide a high resolution view of bacterial succession in these niches, using 16S rRNA metabarcoding. Results: We find that a structured community develops in the root, in which gall communities diverge from root segments lacking a gall, and that this structure is maintained throughout the crop season. We detail the successional process leading toward this structure, which is driven by interactions with the nematode and later by an increase in bacteria often found in hypoxic and anaerobic environments. We show evidence that this structure may play a role in the nematode’s chemotaxis towards uninfected root segments. Finally, we describe the J2 epibiotic microenvironment as ecologically deterministic, in part, due to active bacterial attraction of second stage juveniles. Conclusions: High density sampling, both temporally and across adjacent microniches, coupled with the power and relative low cost of metabarcoding, has provided us with a high resolution description of our study system. Such an approach can advance our understanding of holobiont ecology. Meloidogyne spp., with their relatively low genetic diversity, large geographic range and the simplified agricultural ecosystems they occupy, can serve as a model organism. Additionally, the perspective this approach provides could promote the efforts toward biological control efficacy.