Accelerated aging caused diversity and specificity loss in the bacterial communities of Brassica napus seedlings

Abstract Healthy seeds are an important component of global food security, and their microbiome was recently identified as crucial for plant growth, resilience and health. Seed vigour is highly affected by storage conditions and aging. To study the impact of seed aging on the Brassica napus seed bacterial community, we conducted accelerated aging tests (45°C, humidity > 95%) with seed lots of four genotypes originating from two field sites in Germany. We found a strong effect of accelerated aging on germination, seedling phenotypes, as well as the seed bacterial community. Control seeds developed mainly into normal seedlings and were characterized by diverse bacterial communities comprising typical core seed microbes. Accelerated aging resulted in abnormal germination and reduced total germination. Furthermore, accelerated aging reduced diversity and evenness of the seed bacterial community and contributed to a shift from Gram-negative to Gram-positive bacteria. This effect, especially the enrichment of Firmicutes, was found irrespective of the genotype and field site; however, the way stress affected bacterial taxa varied, depended on both factors. Tumebacillus and Bacillus showed a significant negative correlation with germination phenotype, whereas alpha diversity correlated positively with a high total germination. At the functional level, the majority of isolated bacteria demonstrated plant-beneficial characteristics, showing a greater beneficial potential in the aged seeds. Our results show that accelerated aging tests affect the seed bacterial community structure and diversity, and correlate with the presence of certain taxa, which might have an effect on germination and seedling phenotype.