@article{becker_cubeta_2024, title={Multigenerational Drought Reveals a Stable Wheat Seed Fungal Community}, volume={6}, ISSN={["2471-2906"]}, DOI={10.1094/PBIOMES-08-23-0083-R}, abstractNote={Wheat ( Triticum spp.) is a staple food crop, providing a fifth of the world's protein and caloric needs. Our research examines the impact of multigeneration postflowering drought stress on the wheat seed endophytic fungal community. Understanding how wheat seed fungal communities respond to drought stress over several generations can improve our knowledge of legacy drought stress. In this article, we aim to identify seed-associated fungi that play critical roles within the wheat seed under drought stress conditions. We examined the endophytic seed fungal communities of three winter wheat cultivars, Catawba, Shirley, and USG 3640. Moderate drought was imposed on a subset of plants immediately after flowering, with plants relieved from drought stress after 1 week. Seeds harvested from generation 1 were planted for a second generation of drought experiments. When examining the postflowering drought impact on wheat physiology, drought-exposed plants consistently exhibited lower daily transpiration rates, chlorophyll-a values, and seed yield compared with control plants, indicating that drought implementation was successful. Internal transcribed spacer 1 metabarcoding revealed that wheat seed fungal community species richness decreased during postanthesis drought stress across both generations. We also observed that generation accounted for variation in fungal species richness and community structure, independent of drought treatment. The most abundant taxa recovered across all cultivars, treatments, and generations included Cladosporium, Penicillium, Alternaria, and Epicoccum. These results support our hypothesis that postanthesis drought shapes the wheat seed fungal community.}, journal={PHYTOBIOMES JOURNAL}, author={Becker, Lindsey E. and Cubeta, Marc A.}, year={2024}, month={Jun} }
 @misc{becker_cubeta_2024, title={The contribution of beneficial wheat seed fungal communities beyond disease-causing fungi: Advancing heritable mycobiome-based plant breeding}, volume={16}, ISSN={["1758-2229"]}, DOI={10.1111/1758-2229.70004}, abstractNote={Abstract Wheat ( Triticum sp.) is a staple cereal crop, providing nearly a fifth of the world's protein and available calories. While fungi associated with wheat plants have been known for centuries, attention to fungi associated with wheat seeds has increased over the last hundred years. Initially, research focused on fungal taxa that cause seed‐borne diseases. Seeds act as a physical link between generations and host specialized fungal communities that affect seed dormancy, germination, quality, and disease susceptibility. Interest in beneficial, non‐disease‐causing fungal taxa associated with seeds has grown since the discovery of Epichloë in fescue, leading to a search for beneficial fungal endophytes in cereal grains. Recent studies of the wheat seed mycobiome have shown that disease, seed development, and temporal variation significantly influence the composition and structure of these fungal communities. This research, primarily descriptive, aims to better understand the wheat seed mycobiome's function in relation to the plant host. A deeper understanding of the wheat seed mycobiome's functionality may offer potential for microbiome‐assisted breeding.}, number={6}, journal={ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY REPORTS}, author={Becker, Lindsey E. and Cubeta, Marc A.}, year={2024}, month={Dec} }