Definitions: holobiont, holobiome, microbiome
Recent reports proposed that multicellular organisms (e.g., animals and
plants) and their associated unicellular organisms (e.g., microbes)
could be considered as super-organisms, or holobionts (in ancient Greek,
holos means whole and biont means unit of life) (Gilbert, 2019, Suarez
& Stencel, 2020). However, the definition and concept of a holobiont is
still debated. We consider a holobiont as an ecological unit (assembly)
of a group of organisms that gather together based on their evolutionary
capability to achieve a common purpose, which is survival of the
holobiont.
The holobiome includes all living organisms, their genetic materials,
and their primary and secondary metabolites and molecules produced
within a particular habitat (Berg, Rybakova, Fischer, Cernava, Vergès,
Charles, Chen, Cocolin, Eversole & Corral, 2020, Sharifi & Ryu, 2017).
The microbiome includes the microbial community living in a particular
habitat and their metabolites, mobile genetic elements, and relic DNA
(Berg et al., 2020). The microbiome helps the holobiont survive
during biotic and abiotic stresses. The presence and abundance of
specific microbial species in the microbiome change during successive
phases of plant ontogeny and during biotic/abiotic stresses (Carrión,
Perez-Jaramillo, Cordovez, Tracanna, de Hollander, Ruiz-Buck, Mendes,
van Ijcken, Medema & Raaijmakers, 2019, Cotton, Petriacq, Cameron,
Meselmani, Schwarzenbacher, Rolfe & Ton, 2019, Edwards,
Santos-Medellın, Liechty, Nguyen, Lurie & Eason, 2018, Gu, Wei, Wang,
Friman, Huang, Wang, Mei, Xu, Shen & Jousset, 2016).
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