Intra- and inter-annual changes in root endospheric microbial communities of grapevine are mainly deterministic

Background and aims Considering the plant microbiota, temporal changes are expected depending on plant development stages and environmental pressures because of modifications in plant requirements and available soil microbial reservoir. Methods Herein, we analyzed the composition of root endosphere microbiota of grafted vine plants using two grapevine cultivars (Merlot and Cabernet-Sauvignon as scion grafted on rootstocks of different clones) as models both sampled in a single vineyard at three dates over a period of two growing years. Results Highly conserved temporal patterns were found in the two cultivars. Intra-annual changes in microbial community composition were recorded whereas convergent microbial communities were observed on the two September dates. In particular, the increase in Actinobacteria and decrease in Glomeromycota in September were interpreted as shifts in the microbiota community patterns related to plant physiological requirements (e.g. water supply). A high proportion of non-random assembly of the root endospheric bacterial community confirmed the deterministic influence of the plant or/and the environment in microbial recruitment over time. The modified normalized stochasticity ratio (MST) showed that deterministic processes of assembly (MST < 50%) were commonplace despite the changes in the root microbiota composition observed among sampling dates. Conclusion Our study suggests an intra-annual rhythm of microbiota shifts, marginally random, with a succession within the root-microbiota endosphere likely governed by active plant filtering. A better knowledge of microbial-recruitment at work, seems important for both fundamental and applied perspectives.