Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing (mNGS) Data Reveal the Phyllosphere Microbiome of Wheat Plants Infected by the Fungal Pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici

Abstract

The fungal pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici is the causal agent of Septoria tritici blotch (STB), a major wheat disease in Western Europe. Microorganisms inhabiting wheat leaves might act as beneficial, biocontrol, or facilitating agents that could limit or stimulate the development of Z. tritici. Improving our understanding of microbial communities in the wheat phyllosphere would lead to new insights into STB management. This article provides fungal and bacterial metabarcoding datasets obtained by sampling wheat leaves with and without symptoms caused by Z. tritici. Tissues were sampled from three commercial wheat varieties on three sampling dates during a cropping season. Weeds around wheat fields were sampled as well. In total, more than 450 leaf samples were collected. The pathogen Z. tritici was quantified using quantitative PCR. We provide the raw metabarcoding datasets, the amplicon sequence variant tables obtained after bioinformatic processing, the metadata associated with each sample (sampling date, wheat variety and tissue health condition), a preliminary descriptive analysis of the data, and the code used for bioinformatic and descriptive statistical analysis.