High bacterial diversity drives the suppression of a soilborne plant disease
Abstract
The rhizosphere microbiome plays a crucial role in the resistance to soilborne plant diseases. However, the principles needed to explain and predict which microbiota will be effective against soilborne pathogens are still lacking due to the complexity of the soil microbial community. We hypothesized that, independent of particular microbial strains, a high diversity is associated with, or increases the probability of, effective suppression. We tested this hypothesis by demonstrating that random combinations of rhizosphere microbial isolates, with the same bacterial diversity, had an equal impact on suppressing root diseases. The incidence of root rot was significantly reduced when soil bacterial diversity was high. We further investigated how high-diversity bacterial communities suppress root rot by constructing synthetic bacterial communities (SynComs). The results suggest that high bacterial diversity suppresses pathogens through mechanisms potentially including nutrient competition and the formation of physical barriers on the root surface. Our study highlights that high bacterial diversity is beneficial for suppressing soilborne plant diseases, offering a nonchemical and sustainable approach for crop disease management.
Article Details
Journal Info
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Sciences
Authors (20)
Xiaoli Bai
State Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University
Zhefei Li
State Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University
Beibei Chen
State Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University
Xun Qian
Interdisciplinary Research Center for Soil Microbial Ecology and Land Sustainable Productivity in Dry Areas, Northwest A&F University
Yu Guo
Qian Wang
Chun Chen
State Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University
Weimin Chen
State Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University
Xihui Shen
State Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Agricultural and Environmental Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University
Jialin Liu
State Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University
Juan Jin
School of Basic Medicine, Anhui Medical University
Weiqin Zhang
State Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University
Qi Liu
Shi Chen
Shanshan Yang
State Key Laboratory for Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University
Leilei Xu
Marcel G. A. van der Heijden
Plant–Soil Interactions, Agroscope
James M. Tiedje
Interdisciplinary Research Center for Soil Microbial Ecology and Land Sustainable Productivity in Dry Areas, Northwest A&F University
Shuo Jiao
Department of Environmental Science, College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University
Gehong Wei
Department of Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University