Figure 5. Plant-associated Rhodococcus bacteria cause changes to the root architecture of seedlings.

(A) Representative images of root hairs of N. benthamiana that were inoculated with isolates of Rhodococcus. Images were taken 25 days post inoculation (dpi). The white arrow indicates the thicker stem induced only by isolate D188. Scale bars are 0.5 mm. (B) Quantification of average root hair number at 25 dpi. All root hairs were manually counted for at least five seedlings per treatment. (C) Quantification of root hair lengths at 25 dpi. All root hairs were manually measured for at least five seedlings per treatment. For B and C, data were repeated in two independent biological replicates. * indicates a significant difference compared to the mock treatment.

Figure 5—figure supplement 1. Five additional virulence-gene-lacking isolates of Rhodococcus cause changes to root architecture.

Representative images of seedlings inoculated with the indicated isolates of Rhodococcus or water (mock). The root lengths of seedlings inoculated with isolates lacking virulence genes were different from those of seedlings inoculated with isolate D188.

Figure 5—figure supplement 2. Heatmap of genes and functions enriched in clades of plant-associated Rhodococcus.

Genes associated with plant-beneficial functions were used as queries in TBLASTN searches for homologs in Rhodococcus (green = presence [>40% identity, >70% length]; cyan = absence). For the CAZYmes, only the 48 most highly represented classes are shown. The key shows the number of homologs detected. Putative secondary metabolite biosynthetic clusters were identified using antiSMASH. The key shows the number of loci predicted for each category.