This review highlights the importance of seed microbiota diversity and its transmission across plant generations, suggesting implications for agriculture.
Plants are associated with vast communities of micro-organisms, or microbiota, which contribute to their adaptive value. It is usually acknowledged that most members of the microbiota originate from a local reservoir of diversity, such as the soil. However, a multitude of microbial species use the seed as a dissemination vector. This transmission of micro-organisms via seeds ensures plant microbiota inheritance from one plant generation to the next. Here, we review seed microbiota with a particular emphasis on (1) its diversity, (2) the origin of its members, (3) the processes involved in its assembly, (4) its dynamics during the early stages of crop establishment, (5) its functional role and (6) its potential for microbial engineering in agriculture.
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Matthieu Barret (2025) studied this question.
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