1. Plant-associated microbes play essential roles in nutrient uptake and plant productivity, but their role in driving plant germination, a critical stage in the plant life cycle, is still poorly understood.
2. We used data from a large-scale, field-based soil seed bank study to examine the relationship among plants germinating from the seed bank and soil microbial community composition. We combined this with an experiment using 34 laboratory-based microcosms whereby sterile soil was inoculated with microbes from different field sites to examine how microbes affect the germination of nine plant species.
3. The community composition of plants in the soil seed bank was highly and significantly associated with bacterial and fungal community composition, with stronger correlations for soil beneath plant canopies. Microbes predicted a unique portion of the variation in the community composition of germinants after accounting for differences in environmental variables. The strongest correlations among microbes and plant functional traits included those related to perenniality, growth form, plant size, root type and seed shape. Our microcosm study showed that different plant species had their own associated germination microbiome, and most plant–microbe interactions were positive during germination.
4. Synthesis. Our study provides evidence for intimate relationships between plant and soil biodiversity during germination. Our work fills an important knowledge gap for plant–microbe interactions and reveals valuable insights into the shared natural history of plants and microbes in terrestrial ecosystems.

中文翻译：

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土壤微生物群落与植物萌发之间密切关系的实验证据

1. 植物相关微生物在养分吸收和植物生产力方面发挥重要作用，但它们在推动植物发芽（植物生命周期的关键阶段）方面的作用仍知之甚少。
2. 我们使用来自大规模田间土壤种子库研究的数据来检查从种子库发芽的植物与土壤微生物群落组成之间的关系。我们将此与使用 34 个基于实验室的微观世界的实验相结合，其中将来自不同田间地点的微生物接种到无菌土壤中，以检查微生物如何影响九种植物的萌发。
3. 土壤种子库中植物群落组成与细菌和真菌群落组成高度显着相关，与植物冠层下土壤的相关性更强。在考虑了环境变量的差异后，微生物预测了发芽植物群落组成变化的独特部分。微生物与植物功能性状之间最强的相关性包括与多年生性、生长形式、植物大小、根类型和种子形状相关的那些。我们的微观研究表明，不同的植物物种有其自身相关的发芽微生物组，大多数植物-微生物在发芽期间的相互作用是积极的。
4. 合成。我们的研究为发芽期间植物和土壤生物多样性之间的密切关系提供了证据。我们的工作填补了植物-微生物相互作用的重要知识空白，并揭示了对陆地生态系统中植物和微生物共享自然历史的宝贵见解。