Core Microbiome of Medicinal Plant Salvia miltiorrhiza Seed: A Rich Reservoir of Beneficial Microbes for Secondary Metabolism?

Seed microbiome includes special endophytic or epiphytic microbial taxa associated with seeds, which affects seed germination, plant growth, and health. Here, we analyzed the core microbiome of 21 <i>Salvia miltiorrhiza</i> seeds from seven different geographic origins using 16S rDNA and ITS amplicon sequencing, followed by bioinformatics analysis. The whole bacterial microbiome was classified into 17 microbial phyla and 39 classes. Gammaproteobacteria (67.6%), Alphaproteobacteria (15.6%), Betaproteobacteria (2.6%), Sphingobacteria (5.0%), Bacilli (4.6%), and Actinobacteria (2.9%) belonged to the core bacterial microbiome. Dothideomycetes comprised 94% of core fungal microbiome in <i>S. miltiorrhiza</i> seeds, and another two dominant classes were Leotiomycetes (3.0%) and Tremellomycetes (2.0%). We found that terpenoid backbone biosynthesis, degradation of limonene, pinene, and geraniol, and prenyltransferases, were overrepresented in the core bacterial microbiome using phylogenetic examination of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states (PICRUSt) software. We also found that the bacterial genera <i>Pantoea, Pseudomonas</i>, and <i>Sphingomonas</i> were enriched core taxa and overlapped among <i>S. miltiorrhiza</i>, maize, bean, and rice, while a fungal genus, <i>Alternaria</i>, was shared within <i>S. miltiorrhiza</i>, bean, and Brassicaceae families. These findings highlight that seed-associated microbiomeis an important component of plant microbiomes, which may be a gene reservoir for secondary metabolism in medicinal plants.