| description |
The surface of plant leaves, also termed the phyllosphere, is a selective habitat for microbes. From this phyllosphere microbiome, the bacterial composition seems to depend on plant host species, leaf characteristics, season, climate, and geographic distance between the plant hosts. In this study, we investigated the effect of an urban environment and air pollution on the bacterial composition of phyllosphere communities. We performed a passive biomonitoring experiment in which leaves were sampled from Ivy (Hedera sp.), a common evergreen climber species in the area under study. The bacterial community composition was determined using 16S rRNA gene sequencing on the Illumina MiSeq platform. In addition, exposure to anthropogenic particulate matter was estimated using leaf biomagnetic analyses. We found that the phyllosphere microbial communities of Ivy were greatly different between urban and more rural locations, as we observed a shift in several of the dominant taxa Beijerinckia, Hymenobacter, Methylocystaceae and Methylobacterium. Interestingly, the communities also showed greater variability in the urban area than at the less urbanized locations where we measured lower levels of air pollution. These results indicate that an urban environment and local air pollution can greatly affect the local phyllosphere community composition. |