2026-10-09T15:25:28Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33088076 2026-09-14T01:49:00Z category_26887 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

<b>Seed-borne microbiome relaxes the competition–colonization trade-off in an invasive plant</b> Sebastián A. Reyes (23806147) Cristian Atala (22807573) Marco A. Molina-Montenegro (22807572) Biosecurity science and invasive species ecology Endophytes Holobiont Mutualism Resource allocation <p dir="ltr">Successful invasive plants can achieve high colonization and competitive performance simultaneously, suggesting escape from classical ecological trade-offs. However, the mechanisms underlying this pattern remain poorly understood. Here, we test whether the seed-borne endomicrobiome modulates the competition–colonization trade-off in the globally invasive dandelion (<i>Taraxacum officinale</i>). Using plants with intact (E⁺) versus experimentally reduced endomicrobiome (E⁻), we quantified traits and gene-expression associated with colonization and competitive ability. Individuals with an intact endomicrobiome shifted toward simultaneously higher colonization and competition performance, whereas plants with reduced microbial communities retained the expected trade-off structure. This relaxation was statistically confirmed at the phenotypic level. However, this was negligible at the transcriptional level, but intact and reduced endomicrobiome individuals occupied distinct positions at both phenotypic and gene-expression space. The strength of this relaxation varied among traits, genes, and geographic origin. These results indicate that microbial symbiosis can decouple key ecological functions underlying plant performance. Our findings identify the seed-borne endomicrobiome as a potential mechanism driving trade-off relaxation in invasive plants, highlighting microbial contributions to invasion success and ecological constraint restructuring.</p> 2026-09-14T01:49:00Z Dataset Dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.33088076.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/_b_Seed-borne_microbiome_relaxes_the_competition_colonization_trade-off_in_an_invasive_plant_b_/33088076 CC BY 4.0 Embargoed