DOI: 10.5061/dryad.h44j0zpv1
title: Heavy metal pollution enhances pathogen resistance of an invasive plant species over its native congener

description: Many invasive plant species have demonstrated a greater capacity for
 tolerating and accumulating heavy metals than their co-occurring native
 plants. Given the potential biological toxicity associated with metal
 accumulation in plants and its ability to alter the composition of
 plant-associated microbial communities, we postulated that heavy metal
 contamination could potentially enhance the pathogen resistance of
 metal-accumulating invasive plant species when compared with their local
 congeneric competitors. This study focused on examining the resistance of
 the invasive weed Alternanthera philoxeroides and its native congener
 Alternanthera sessilis to infection by a leaf pathogenic fungus under soil
 cadmium (Cd) pollution. The findings revealed that despite the detrimental
 effects of Cd exposure on the growth of both plant species, A.
 philoxeroides exhibited superior growth and accumulated higher
 concentrations of Cd in its leaves compared to A. sessilis. Cd stress
 reduced leaf lesion in both plant species following leaf pathogen
 infection, with A. philoxeroides experiencing less leaf lesion than A.
 sessilis. Subsequent analysis of the phyllosphere microbiome and toxicity
 tests suggested that the increased pathogen resistance of A. philoxeroides
 following Cd exposure could be attributed to both the direct toxic effects
 of Cd and the Cd-induced alterations in the microbial composition of the
 epiphytic phyllosphere. We further isolated a bacterial strain with potent
 antagonistic properties against the leaf pathogen, potentially elucidating
 the enhanced pathogen resistance of A. philoxeroides under soil Cd
 pollution. This study advances our understanding of how heavy metal
 pollution might augment the pathogen resistance of invasive plants by
 influencing plant-associated microbial communities.
description: # Title of Dataset: Heavy metal pollution enhances pathogen resistance of
 an invasive plant species over its native congener --- Brief summary of
 dataset contents, contextualized in experimental procedures and results.
 We have submitted our raw data regard to plant traits（plant
 traits-data）and toxicity test (toxicity test-data) ## Description of the
 Data and file structure plant traits-data Describe relationship between
 data files, missing data codes, other abbreviations used. Be as
 descriptive as possible. in this file there were two sheets, which
 including plant traits and toxicity test in this study. The treatment
 codes were listed as below: CKK-control A. philoxeroides CKL- control A.
 sessili CDK- Cd-treated A. philoxeroides CDL- Cd-treated A. sessili The
 units of each plant parameters were leaf dry mass(g) Stem dry mass(g) root
 dry mass(g) total dry mass(g) No of leaves total leafarea (cm2) leaf water
 content (%) leaf nitrogen content leaf Cd content (mg·kg-1) leaf total
 flavonoids (mg·g-1) leaf total phenolics content(mg·g-1) leaf tannins
 content (mg·g-1) leaf lesion area (%) toxicity test-data The units of each
 plant parameters were Cd concentration(mg·L-1 ) diameter of F. oxysporum
 (cm) ## Sharing/access Information Links to other publicly accessible
 locations of the data: Was data derived from another source? No