Biology subjects

De Luca, E.

Publications and source records attributed to De Luca, E..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Variations in the root-soil system influence the grapevine holobiont by shaping plant physiology and root microbiome

Soil-dwelling bacteria and fungi play a crucial role in plant health and productivity by engaging in complex interactions that shape and are shaped by soil physico-chemical properties. In this study, we employed a multi-omics approach to investigate how variations in soil composition affect the grapevine holobiont. Grape plantlets were grown in three distinct soil types, namely sand, peat, and peat-manure. To further assess how variation in soil and root conditions affects the holobionts response, we included treatments involving soil autoclaving and root surface sterilisation across all soil types. We found that soil type significantly influences leaf multielement composition and concentration, while also shaping the bacterial and fungal communities associated with the plant rhizosphere. This shift led to changes in taxa involved in nitrogen fixation, biocontrol, and pathogenicity. Autoclaving soils consistently reduced bacterial diversity across all soil types, whereas fungal communities were less affected. In contrast, thermal treatment of roots had only a minor impact on microbial community composition but did induce transcriptional changes in the root and altered leaf macronutrient concentrations. Our findings indicate that differences in soil composition reshape the entire root-soil continuum, ultimately affecting plant physiology at multiple levels--from root function to leaf nutrient status. This highlights that the soil is not a passive growth medium but a key determinant of grape holobiont structure and function. These results reinforce the view that plant health and adaptation arise from integrated, dynamic interactions among the host, its associated microbiome, and the surrounding soil matrix.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2021

A common neural currency account for social and non-social decisions

To date, social and non-social decisions have been studied in isolation. Consequently, the extent to which social and non-social forms of decision uncertainty are integrated using shared neurocomputational resources remains elusive. Here, we address this question using simultaneous EEG-fMRI and a task in which decision evidence in social and non-social contexts varies along comparable scales. First, we identify comparable time-resolved build-up of activity in the EEG, akin to a process of evidence accumulation. We then use the endogenous trial-by-trial variability in the slopes of these accumulating signals to construct parametric fMRI predictors. We show that a region of the posterior-medial frontal cortex (pMFC) uniquely explains trial-wise variability in the process of evidence accumulation in both the social and non-social contexts. We further demonstrate a task-dependent coupling between the pMFC and regions of the human valuation system in dorso- and ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC/vmPFC) across both contexts. Finally, we report domain-specific representations in regions known to encode the early decision evidence for each context. These results are suggestive of a domain-general decision-making architecture, whereupon domain-specific information is likely converted into a "common currency" in the dmPFC/vmPFC and accumulated for the decision in the pMFC.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Plant diversity and community age shape soil microbial communities

Plant and soil microbial diversity are linked through a range of interactions, including the exchange of carbon and nutrients but also herbivory and pathogenic effects. Over time, associations between plant communities and their soil microbiota may strengthen and become more specific, resulting in stronger associations between plant and soil microbial diversity. We tested this hypothesis in a 4-year long field experiment in which we factorially combined plant community history and soil legacy with plant diversity (1, 2, 4, 8, 60 species). Plant community history and soil legacy refer to the presence ("old") or absence ("new") of a common history of plants and soils in 52 different plant species compositions during 8 years in a long-term biodiversity experiment in Jena, Germany. After 4 years of growth, we took soil samples in the new field experiment and determined soil bacterial and fungal composition in terms of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) using 16S rRNA gene and ITS DNA sequencing. Plant community history did not affect overall soil community composition but differentially affected bacterial richness and abundances of specific bacteria taxa in association with particular plant species compositions. Soil legacy markedly increased soil bacterial richness and evenness and decreased fungal evenness. Soil fungal richness increased with plant species richness, regardless of plant community history or soil legacy, with the strongest difference between plant monocultures and mixtures. Particular plant species compositions and functional groups were associated with particular bacterial and fungal community compositions. Grasses increased and legumes decreased fungal richness and evenness. Our findings indicate that as experimental ecosystems varying in plant diversity develop over 8 years, plant species associate with specific soil microbial taxa. This can have long-lasting effects on belowground community composition in re-assembled plant communities, as reflected in strong soil legacy signals still visible after 4 years of growing new plant communities. Effects of plant community history on soil communities are subtle and may take longer to fully develop.

ecology↗