Phyllosphere microbiology: at the interface between microbial individuals and the plant host

ContentsSummary 1327 I. Introduction 1327 II. Individuality and the relevance of scales for the investigation of bacteria 1328 III. Bacterial aggregation and community patterning at the single‐cell resolution 1329 IV. What are the effects on the plant host? 1330 V. Future directions and current questions 1331Acknowledgements 1332ORCID 1332References 1332Summary Leaf surfaces are home to diverse bacterial communities. Within these communities, every individual cell perceives its unique environment and responds accordingly. In this insight article, the perspective of the bacterial individual is assumed in an attempt to describe how the spatially heterogeneous leaf surface determines the fate of bacteria. To investigate behaviour at scales relevant to bacteria, single‐cell approaches are essential. Single‐cell studies provide important lessons about how current ‘omics’ approaches fail to give an accurate picture of the behaviour of bacterial populations in heterogeneous environments. Upcoming techniques will soon allow us to combine the power of single‐cell and omics approaches.