Abstract
The development of mixed microbial agents can reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture. However, most previous studies focused only on the overall effects of mixed microbial agents and ignored the interactions between bacteria in mixed systems. In this study, Bacillus subtilis SL-44 and Enterobacter cloacae Rs-2 were used to explore the interactions between two different functional plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). The plant growth-promotion properties and inhibition rate of Rhizoctonia solani were determined, and the mechanism of the interactions under single and co-culture conditions was elucidated via transcriptomics analysis under single and co-culture conditions. Results showed that the co-culture was not conducive to B. subtilis SL-44 growth. Furthermore, the differentially expressed genes related to B. subtilis SL-44 developmental process and cell differentiation were downregulated by 82.7% and 84.8% respectively. Moreover, among the properties, only siderophore production by the mixed culture was higher than that of single cultures because of the upregulation of the siderophore-related genes of B. subtilis SL-44. In addition, results revealed the altruistic relationship between the two strains, and the chemical and non-chemical signals of their interaction. This study provides unique insights into PGPR interactions and offers guidance for the development and application of mixed microbial agents.
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Funding
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1803332, 32060026), Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province (2020NY-132, 2021NY-141), the Scientific Research Plan for Local Special Service of Shaanxi Provincial Education Department (20JC014).
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Professor ZS Wu was conceived and supervised the study as corresponding author; Y Li designed and performed this experiments, and she wrote the manuscript; YH He and WF Wang gave suggestions during the experiment and revised the manuscript; XP Li assisted for performing experiments; XL Xu assisted on solving experimental problems in the study; XC Liu and Professor C Li revised the important academic content of the article. All authors approved the final article.
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Li, Y., He, Y., Wang, W. et al. Plant-beneficial functions and interactions of Bacillus subtilis SL-44 and Enterobacter cloacae Rs-2 in co-culture by transcriptomics analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 56333–56344 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14578-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14578-y