Home‐based microbial solution to boost crop growth in low‐fertility soil

• DOI: 10.1111/nph.18943
• Publication Date: 2023-05-07T17:35:23Z
• Authors: Meitong Jiang; Manuel Delgado‐Ba...; Mengting Maggie Yuan; Jixian Ding; Etienne Yergeau; Jizhong Zhou; Thomas W. Crowther; Yuting Liang
• Keywords: 2. Zero hunger; 570; Metagenomic binning; Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; niche structure; Bacteria; soil fertility; rhizosphere microbial community; Agriculture; 15. Life on land; Agricultural Inoculants; Plant Roots; Niche structure; Soil; metagenomic binning; Soilfertility; XXXXXX - Unknown; Rhizosphere; Rhizosphere microbial community; home-field advantage; synthetic microbial community; http://metadata.un.org/sdg/13; Synthetic microbial community; Soil Microbiology; Home-field advantage

Soil microbial inoculants are expected to boost crop productivity under climate change and soil degradation. However, the efficiency of native vs commercialized in soils with different fertility impacts on resident communities remain unclear. We investigated differential plant growth responses synthetic community (SynCom) commercial growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). quantified colonization dynamic niche structure emphasize home-field advantages for inoculants. A SynCom 21 bacterial strains, originating from three typical agricultural soils, conferred a special advantage promoting maize low-fertility conditions. The root : shoot ratio fresh weight increased by 78-121% but only 23-86% PGPRs. This phenotype correlated potential robust positive interactions community. Niche breadth analysis revealed that inoculation induced neutral disturbance structure. even PGPRs failed colonize natural soil, they decreased overlap 59.2-62.4%, exacerbating competition. These results suggest microbes may serve as basis engineering microbiomes support food production widely distributed poor soils.