Abstract:
To compare disease resistance and phyllosphere microbial community structure between susceptible and resistant tobacco varieties, This study adopted resistance assessment combined with Illumina amplicon sequencing to evaluate the resistance of tobacco powdery mildew-susceptible variety K326 and its
MLO mutant-resistant lines E167 and ZP43, as well as to characterize the composition and diversity of their phyllosphere microbial communities. The results showed that at 15 days post-inoculation, the disease indices of E167 and ZP43 were 0 ± 0 and 1.16 ± 0.14, respectively, significantly lower than that of K326 (96.6 ± 0.87). Phyllosphere microbial community analysis revealed that the dominant fungal genera in K326 were
Golovinomyces (25.34%),
Cladosporium (4.07%), and
Penicillium (0.70%); in E167,
Penicillium (37.44%),
Papiliotrema (12.75%), and
Trichoderma (8.46%); and in ZP43,
Trichoderma (2.90%),
Filobasidium (1.93%), and
Penicillium (1.82%). In the
MLO mutant-resistant lines (E167 and ZP43), the abundance of pathogenic fungi in the phyllosphere fungal community decreased, while the abundance of biocontrol agents significantly increased. The composition of dominant bacterial phyla and genera in the phyllosphere was similar across all varieties (lines), predominantly consisting of
Pantoea,
Enterobacter, and
Pseudomonas, although their relative abundances varied. This study indicates that
MLO gene modification can significantly promote the colonization of fungal genera including
Trichoderma,
Filobasidium, and
Papiliotrema in the phyllosphere of E167 and ZP43, concurrently inhibit the colonization of pathogenic genus
Golovinomyces, and enhance microbial community diversity, thereby improving the disease resistance of tobacco plants.