The fern Azolla filiculoides shapes rice root architecture: phytohormone and transcriptomic analyses to uncover info-chemical signals between the partners

Achieving a steady increase in cereal crop yields has become a research priority [1]. Rice is both a model grass species and the world's second-most produced staple cereal crop. Azolla filiculoides is a freshwater pteridophyte that lives in symbiosis with the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Trichormus azollae, which is also capable of emitting biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), phytohormones, and other molecules that likely act as key regulators of rice productivity and fitness [2,3]. The co-cultivation improved rice root architecture Overexpression of NR was likely responsible for the higher accumulation of NO in the roots of co-cultivated plants ABA is the candidate phytohormone signal released by A. filiculoides-T. azollae Transcriptomics suggested that the roots of co-cultivated rice faced a condition of iron toxicity Coming soon: Iron quantification, qRT-PCR analysis of target genes and functional assessment of target genes using mutants