Sampling the Maize (Zea mays) Leaf Microbiome
- 1Department of Crop and Soil Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA
- 2Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA
- 3Center for Applied Genetic Technologies, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA
- ↵4Correspondence: jason.wallace{at}uga.edu
Abstract
The microbiota of maize leaves can be beneficial or detrimental to the host. Foliar diseases are the most obvious detrimental impact of the leaf microbiome, though more subtle effects of the normal (nondisease) community are an active area of research. This protocol describes two specific methodologies to sample the maize leaf microbiome: one sampling the surface (epiphyte) microbiome and one sampling the interior (endophyte) microbiome. Each method begins with collected leaf tissue and finishes with a cell suspension suitable for either isolating live microbes or extracting DNA for sequencing.
Footnotes
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From the Maize collection, edited by Candice N. Hirsch and Marna D. Yandeau-Nelson. The entire Maize collection is available online at Cold Spring Harbor Protocols and can be accessed at https://cshprotocols.cshlp.org/.
