Rootstock–scion combination contributes to shape diversity and composition of microbial communities associated with grapevine root system

To alleviate biotic and abiotic stresses and enhance fruit yield, many crops are cultivated in the form of grafted plants, in which the shoot (scion) and root (rootstock) systems of different species are joined together. Because (i) the plant species determines the microbial recruitment from the soil to the root and (ii) both scion and rootstock impact the physiology, morphology and biochemistry of the grafted plant, it can be expected that their different combinations should affect the recruitment and assembly of plant microbiome. To test our hypothesis, we investigated at a field scale the bacterial and fungal communities associated with the root system of seven grapevine rootstock–scion combinations cultivated across 10 different vineyards. Following the soil type, which resulted in the main determinant of the grapevine root microbial community diversity, the rootstock–scion combination resulted more important than the two components taken alone. Notably, the microbiome differences among the rootstock–scion combinations were mainly dictated by the changes in the relative abundance of microbiome members rather than by their presence/absence. These results reveal that the microbiome of grafted grapevine root systems is largely influenced by the combination of rootstock and scion, which affects the microbial diversity uptaken from soil.