Correlated production and consumption of chloromethane in the Arabidopsis thaliana phyllosphere

• Published in: Scientific reports 2017-12, Vol.7 (1), p.17589-10, Article 17589
• Main Authors: Farhan Ul Haque, Muhammad, Besaury, Ludovic, Nadalig, Thierry, Bringel, Françoise, Mutterer, Jérôme, Schaller, Hubert, Vuilleumier, Stéphane
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 14/19; 14/35; 38/23; 38/39; 38/70; 38/77; 42; 631/326; 631/326/171/1281; Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - metabolism; Arabidopsis - microbiology; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Arabidopsis thaliana; Bacteria; Bacterial Proteins - genetics; Biodegradation; Biodiversity; Chloromethane; Emissions; Energy sources; Environmental Sciences; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genotypes; Humanities and Social Sciences; Life Sciences; Methyl Chloride - metabolism; Methylotrophic bacteria; Methyltransferase; Methyltransferases - genetics; multidisciplinary; Ozone; Phyllosphere; Plant production; Relative abundance; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Stratosphere
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-17421-y

Chloromethane (CH 3 Cl) is a toxic gas mainly produced naturally, in particular by plants, and its emissions contribute to ozone destruction in the stratosphere. Conversely, CH 3 Cl can be degraded and used as the sole carbon and energy source by specialised methylotrophic bacteria, isolated from a variety of environments including the phyllosphere, i.e. the aerial parts of vegetation. The potential role of phyllospheric CH 3 Cl-degrading bacteria as a filter for plant emissions of CH 3 Cl was investigated using variants of Arabidopsis thaliana with low, wild-type and high expression of HOL1 methyltransferase previously shown to be responsible for most of CH 3 Cl emissions by A . thaliana . Presence and expression of the bacterial chloromethane dehalogenase cmuA gene in the A . thaliana phyllosphere correlated with HOL1 genotype, as shown by qPCR and RT-qPCR. Production of CH 3 Cl by A . thaliana paralleled HOL1 expression, as assessed by a fluorescence-based bioreporter. The relation between plant production of CH 3 Cl and relative abundance of CH 3 Cl-degrading bacteria in the phyllosphere suggests that CH 3 Cl-degrading bacteria co-determine the extent of plant emissions of CH 3 Cl to the atmosphere.