Host genetics has recently been shown to be a driver of plant microbiome composition. However, identifying the underlying genetic loci controlling microbial selection remains challenging. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) represent a potentially powerful, unbiased method to identify microbes sensitive to the host genotype and to connect them with the genetic loci that influence their colonization. Here, we conducted a population-level microbiome analysis of the rhizospheres of 200 sorghum genotypes. Using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we identify rhizosphere-associated bacteria exhibiting heritable associations with plant genotype, and identify significant overlap between these lineages and heritable taxa recently identified in maize. Furthermore, we demonstrate that GWAS can identify host loci that correlate with the abundance of specific subsets of the rhizosphere microbiome. Finally, we demonstrate that these results can be used to predict rhizosphere microbiome structure for an independent panel of sorghum genotypes based solely on knowledge of host genotypic information.

宿主遗传学最近被证明是植物微生物组组成的驱动因素。然而，识别控制微生物选择的潜在基因位点仍然具有挑战性。全基因组关联研究 (GWAS) 代表了一种潜在的强大、公正的方法，可以识别对宿主基因型敏感的微生物，并将它们与影响其定殖的基因位点联系起来。在这里，我们对 200 种高粱基因型的根际进行了群体水平的微生物组分析。使用 16S rRNA 扩增子测序，我们确定了与植物基因型表现出可遗传关联的根际相关细菌，并确定了这些谱系与最近在玉米中发现的可遗传分类群之间的显着重叠。此外，我们证明 GWAS 可以识别与根际微生物组特定子集的丰度相关的宿主基因座。最后，我们证明了这些结果可用于预测仅基于宿主基因型信息的独立高粱基因型组的根际微生物组结构。