Root Microbiome Assembly Underpins the Ecological Role of Emergent Macrophytes in a Pilot-Scale Constructed Wetland.
8 affiliations
- 1Centro i~mar, MASH y CeBiB, Universidad de Los Lagos, Puerto Montt 5480000, Chile.
- 2Laboratorio de Inmunología y Biología Molecular, Facultad de Química y Farmacia, Universidad del Atlántico, Barranquilla 080001, Colombia.
- 3Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Instituto de Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Temuco 4780000, Chile.
- 4DVS Tecnología, Parcelación Neumann, Puerto Varas 5550000, Chile.
- 5Centro de Estudios del Agua, Grupo de Investigación Humedales del Caribe Colombiano Facultad de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad del Atlántico, Barranquilla 080001, Colombia.
- 6Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
- 7Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences (HEAS), University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
- 8Núcleo Científico y Tecnológico en Biorecursos (BIOREN), Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4780000, Chile.
Abstract
Constructed wetlands (CWs) depend on plant-microbe associations for pollutant transformation, yet the processes linking macrophyte identity to rhizosphere microbiome assembly remain insufficiently resolved. We compared bacterial communities associated with C. articulatus (Ca) and T. geniculata (Tg) roots with an unplanted treatment (Up) in pilot-scale CWs on the Colombian Caribbean coast. Bacterial communities were characterized by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Co-occurrence networks, taxon-environment correlations, and the phylogenetic bin-based null model iCAMP were used to assess community structure, potential associations and assembly mechanisms. CaS supported significantly greater bacterial diversity than TgS and Up, while each macrophyte recruited a distinct community. A shared core microbiome dominated by Rhodocyclaceae, Sphingomonadaceae, Chitinophagaceae, Pirellulaceae, and Xanthomonadaceae comprised taxa with putative roles in nutrient and organic matter transformations. Several bacterial families were significantly associated with PO₄³⁻, NH₄⁺, and dissolved oxygen. Assembly was predominantly stochastic, with dispersal limitation (45.2%) and ecological drift (33.2%) exceeding deterministic selection (16.5%). Nevertheless, planted treatments displayed higher network modularity and connectivity and inferred functional redundancy than Up, consistent with niche differentiation. These findings suggest that species-specific macrophyte configurations are associated with differences in root-associated microbial community composition, while assembly and network analyses provide exploratory insights into community organization. The limited replication precludes causal attribution to plant identity or conclusions regarding treatment performance. Future studies integrating controlled planting densities, increased replication, meta-omics, and root exudate characterization are needed to clarify plant-microbiome relationships and evaluate their potential relevance to constructed wetland functioning.
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BibTeX
@article{florez2026root,
title = {{Root Microbiome Assembly Underpins the Ecological Role of Emergent Macrophytes in a Pilot-Scale Constructed Wetland.}},
author = {July Z Florez and Lourdes Varela-Prieto and Ana Zárate and Aracelly Caselles-Osorio and Alejandro Llanos-Lizcano and Pablo Bruna},
journal = {Biology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/biology15191739},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883411},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Root Microbiome Assembly Underpins the Ecological Role of Emergent Macrophytes in a Pilot-Scale Constructed Wetland.
AU - July Z Florez
AU - Lourdes Varela-Prieto
AU - Ana Zárate
AU - Aracelly Caselles-Osorio
AU - Alejandro Llanos-Lizcano
AU - Pablo Bruna
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Biology
DO - 10.3390/biology15191739
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883411
AB - Constructed wetlands (CWs) depend on plant-microbe associations for pollutant transformation, yet the processes linking macrophyte identity to rhizosphere microbiome assembly remain insufficiently resolved. We compared bacterial communities associated with C. articulatus (Ca) and T. geniculata (Tg) roots with an unplanted treatment (Up) in pilot-scale CWs on the Colombian Caribbean coast. Bacterial communities were characterized by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Co-occurrence networks, taxon-environment correlations, and the phylogenetic bin-based null model iCAMP were used to assess community structure, potential associations and assembly mechanisms. CaS supported significantly greater bacterial diversity than TgS and Up, while each macrophyte recruited a distinct community. A shared core microbiome dominated by Rhodocyclaceae, Sphingomonadaceae, Chitinophagaceae, Pirellulaceae, and Xanthomonadaceae comprised taxa with putative roles in nutrient and organic matter transformations. Several bacterial families were significantly associated with PO₄³⁻, NH₄⁺, and dissolved oxygen. Assembly was predominantly stochastic, with dispersal limitation (45.2%) and ecological drift (33.2%) exceeding deterministic selection (16.5%). Nevertheless, planted treatments displayed higher network modularity and connectivity and inferred functional redundancy than Up, consistent with niche differentiation. These findings suggest that species-specific macrophyte configurations are associated with differences in root-associated microbial community composition, while assembly and network analyses provide exploratory insights into community organization. The limited replication precludes causal attribution to plant identity or conclusions regarding treatment performance. Future studies integrating controlled planting densities, increased replication, meta-omics, and root exudate characterization are needed to clarify plant-microbiome relationships and evaluate their potential relevance to constructed wetland functioning.
SN - 2079-7737
ER -