{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T05:23:53Z","timestamp":1791523433706,"version":"4.3.4"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]]},"group-title":"Microbiology","reference-count":59,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]],"date-time":"2026-03-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1773792000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"award":["101108450"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["101108450"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/019w4f821","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["390838134"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["390838134"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/018mejw64","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["TTU09.716"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TTU09.716"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/028s4q594","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["R35GM155026"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R35GM155026"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Formaci\u00f3n de Profesorado Universitario","award":["FPU19\/00289"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FPU19\/00289"]}]},{"name":"Consolidaci\u00f3n Investigadora","award":["CSN2022-135744"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CSN2022-135744"]}]},{"name":"Agencia Estatal de Investigaci\u00f3n of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci\u00f3n","award":["PID2024-156932NA-I00"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PID2024-156932NA-I00"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,18]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  Plant-associated microbial communities provide crucial protection against pathogens. Specialized metabolites play key roles in plant-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions and, ultimately, in plant health; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying their plant-protecting properties remain largely unknown. Nutrient deficiency (e.g., iron) on leaf surfaces creates intense competition among microbes, driving both antagonism and cooperation. Using a gnotobiotic\n                  <jats:italic>Arabidopsis thaliana<\/jats:italic>\n                  model and a synthetic leaf microbial community, we show that community stability and plant protection depend on cooperative siderophore exchange between the basidiomycete yeast\n                  <jats:italic>Rhodotorula kratochvilovae<\/jats:italic>\n                  and commensal\n                  <jats:italic>Pseudomonas<\/jats:italic>\n                  species. Removal of\n                  <jats:italic>Pseudomonas<\/jats:italic>\n                  caused a strong shift in the community metabolome and accumulation of the yeast siderophore rhodotorulic acid (RA). RA selectively promoted the growth of commensal\n                  <jats:italic>Pseudomonas<\/jats:italic>\n                  via TonB-dependent transporters, which are absent in pathogenic\n                  <jats:italic>Pseudomonas<\/jats:italic>\n                  strains. Inactivation of these transporter genes abolished RA uptake, destabilized the synthetic community, and eliminated protection against\n                  <jats:italic>Pseudomonas syringae<\/jats:italic>\n                  infection. RA and\n                  <jats:italic>Rhodotorula<\/jats:italic>\n                  also induced host iron-deficiency and jasmonate-related defense metabolites, linking microbial cooperation to plant stress responses. These findings reveal that microbial siderophore exchange acts as a key mechanism that maintains stability in the phyllosphere microbiome. Rather than solely promoting competition, iron-binding compounds can serve as cooperative currencies that align microbial fitness with host protection.\n                <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.03.18.712463","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,19]],"date-time":"2026-03-19T03:00:22Z","timestamp":1773889222000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Cooperative siderophore use stabilizes a protective leaf microbiome"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2214-6655","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paolo","family":"Stincone","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Tuebingen, Center for Plant Molecular Biology, Tuebingen, Germany"},{"name":"University of Tuebingen, CMFI Cluster of Excellence, Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine, Tuebingen, Germany"},{"name":"Cluster of Excellence GreenRobust, Eberhard Karls University, T\u00fcbingen 72076, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lukas M.","family":"Braun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Tuebingen, Center for Plant Molecular Biology, Tuebingen, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Caner","family":"Ba\u011fc\u0131","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Translational Genome Mining for Natural Products, Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine T\u00fcbingen (IMIT), Interfaculty Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBMI), University of T\u00fcbingen, T\u00fcbingen, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marcelo","family":"Navarro-Diaz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Tuebingen, CMFI Cluster of Excellence, Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine, Tuebingen, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alicia I.","family":"P\u00e9rez-Lorente","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Hortofruticultura Subtropical y Mediterr\u00e1nea La Mayora, Universidad de M\u00e1laga-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas, Departamento de Microbiolog\u00eda, Universidad de M\u00e1laga, M\u00e1laga, Spain"},{"name":"Departamento de Microbiolog\u00eda, Universidad de M\u00e1laga, Bulevar Louis Pasteur 31 (Campus Universitario de Teatinos), M\u00e1laga 29071, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shane P.","family":"Farrell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Maine, Walpole, ME, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9938-9444","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel","family":"G\u00f3mez-P\u00e9rez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Organisms and Ecosystems, Earlham Institute, Norwich, 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