Salt tolerance of Cressa cretica and its rhizosphere microbiota

The dwarf shrub Cressa cretica is a thermocosmopolitan halophilic species. Different mechanisms confer salt stress tolerance such as tissue and osmotic tolerance and ion exclusion, as well as the associated microbiota. The aims were (i) to investigate the best conditions for C. cretica seed germination and to examine the tolerance of germinated seeds and seedlings to different salt concentrations and (ii) to characterize the rhizosphere and bulk soil microbiota. Germination and growth experiments were conducted to address plant salt tolerance, and with Illumina sequencing the microbiota of rhizosphere and bulk soil was investigated. While high salt concentrations (600, 800, and 1000 mM NaCl) inhibited C.cretica seed germination, recovery of ungerminated seeds under non-saline conditions was high, indicating osmotic rather than toxic effects of high salt concentrations. The microbiota found in rhizosphere and bulk soil showed high similarity with that found in previous studies on halophyte-associated microbiota, among the Planctomyces, Halomonas and Jeotgalibacillus. Concluding, salt stress responses on the plant level were shown, as has the involvement of associated halotolerant bacteria. Still, the potential role for mitigating saline stress by the bacterial associates of C. cretica, most of them microbial dark matter, will have to be investigated, as will the contributions of archaea and fungi.