2026-10-11T21:19:12Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33958160 2026-09-21T17:52:03Z category_7 category_8 category_21 category_873 category_39 category_734 category_64 category_133 portal_5 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

<p>Mutations found in background and insect lines.</p> Maria Zwyssig (25084895) Jana Schneider (263014) Gijs Selten (25084898) Christoph Keel (276066) Monika Maurhofer (276067) Ronnie de Jonge (211975) Medicine Microbiology Biotechnology Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified Ecology Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Cancer Plant Biology via repeated cycles ten consecutive passages reliable biocontrol performance one case might plutella xylostella </ pseudomonas protegens </ div >< p disentangle changes specific plant protection efficiency larval killing speed insect killing speed supporting cha0 ’ borne plant diseases host lifestyle shared kill insect larvae protegens </ killing forcing vitro </ plant diseases host lifestyle insect host widely studied thus exhibits serial passaging regulatory systems regions encoding microbial antagonism findings indicate consistent changes complex environments colonising capabilities colonising bacteria choline uptake biological control better understand beneficial bacterium arising due also infect <div><p>The plant-beneficial bacterium <i>Pseudomonas protegens</i> CHA0 (CHA0) is widely studied for the biological control of soil-borne plant diseases. Beyond its root-colonising capabilities, CHA0 can also infect and kill insect larvae and thus exhibits a multi-host lifestyle shared with other plant- and insect-colonising bacteria. To better understand the robustness of this multi-host lifestyle, we subjected CHA0 to ten consecutive passages through larvae of the pest insect <i>Plutella xylostella</i> via repeated cycles of insect colonisation and killing forcing it into an insect-only lifestyle. Overall, serial passaging did not result in consistent changes in insect killing speed, larval or root colonisation, plant protection efficiency, microbial antagonism or <i>in vitro</i> growth. This suggests that its multi-host lifestyle was conserved following serial passage. Nonetheless, a few independently passaged lines showed an increase in larval killing speed, which in one case might be linked to choline uptake. To disentangle changes specific to the insect host from those arising due to the experimental system itself, we conducted parallel serial passages through the same system while omitting the insect host. In some of these lines, exposure to the background of the system led to changes in microbial antagonism and in <i>in vitro</i> growth, which likely are associated with mutations in regions encoding for regulatory systems. Our findings indicate that <i>P. protegens</i> CHA0 remains phenotypically stable in complex environments such as an insect host, suggesting that the multi-host lifestyle might also be conserved when applied in the field and supporting CHA0’s potential for reliable biocontrol performance against both plant diseases and insect pests.</p></div> 2026-09-21T17:51:09Z Dataset Dataset 10.1371/journal.ppat.1014101.t001 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/_p_Mutations_found_in_background_and_insect_lines_p_/33958160 CC BY 4.0