Fig. 2

Many leaf bacteria can reach and colonize leaves when only a few cells encounter a germinating seed. A The in-planta isolation method based on dilution-to-extinction of leaf-associated microbes from wild A. thaliana leaves and inoculation onto germinating axenic seedlings, followed by 2 weeks of growth and isolation and identification of colonizers. This was used to identify leaf bacteria that are likely to be efficient colonizers when highly dilute in soil. B Bacteria collected from wild NG2 or PB plants were diluted to 3.5 and 1.45 cells/seedling and inoculated onto germinating NG2, PB, or Col-0 plants. Bar chart showing taxonomy of 30 random colonizers from each treatment (31 for PB PB). Taxonomy is grouped at the order level, taxonomy at the genus level and associated statistics can be found in Figure S1 and Table S2. Detailed data on numbers of plants inoculated and colonized are found in Table S1