Rhizospheric microbial communities associated with wild and cultivated frankincense producing Boswellia sacra tree

Effects of Long-Term Sod Culture Management on Soil Fertility, Enzyme Activities, Soil Microorganisms, and Fruit Yield and Quality in "Jiro" Sweet Persimmon Orchard

Clean tillage frequently causes the loss of soil nutrients and weakens microbial ecosystem service functions. In order to improve orchard soil nutrient cycling, enhance enzyme activities and microbial community structure in a "Jiro" sweet persimmon orchard, sod culture management was carried out to clarify the relationship among soil nutrient, microbial communities, and fruit yield and quality in persimmon orchard. The results showed that sod culture management increased the content of organic matter, total organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the soil, thus improving soil fertility. Compared with clean tillage orchards, sod culture methods significantly increased soil enzyme activities and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) content. The abundance-based coverage estimator (ACE) and the simplest richness estimators (Chao l) indices of the bacterial community and all diversity and richness indices of the fungal community significantly increased in the sod culture orchard, which indicated that sod culture could increase the richness and diversity of the soil microbial community. The dominant bacterial phyla were Proteobacteria (32.21~41.13%) and Acidobacteria (18.76~23.86%), and the dominant fungal phyla were Mortierellomycota (31.11~83.40%) and Ascomycota (3.45~60.14%). Sod culture drove the composition of the microbial community to increase the beneficial microbiome. Correlation analyses and partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) comparative analyses showed that the soil chemical properties (mainly including soil organic matter content, total organic carbon content, total potassium content, and total nitrogen content), soil enzyme activities and soil microorganisms were strongly correlated with fruit yield and quality. Meanwhile, soil nutrient, soil enzyme, and soil microbes had also influenced each other. Our results showed that long-term ryegrass planting could improve soil fertility, enzyme activities, and microbial community compositions. Such changes might lead to a cascading effect on the fruit yield and quality of "Jiro" sweet persimmons.

The phytomicrobiome: solving plant stress tolerance under climate change

With extraordinary global climate changes, increased episodes of extreme conditions result in continuous but complex interaction of environmental variables with plant life. Exploring natural phytomicrobiome species can provide a crucial resource of beneficial microbes that can improve plant growth and productivity through nutrient uptake, secondary metabolite production, and resistance against pathogenicity and abiotic stresses. The phytomicrobiome composition, diversity, and function strongly depend on the plant's genotype and climatic conditions. Currently, most studies have focused on elucidating microbial community abundance and diversity in the phytomicrobiome, covering bacterial communities. However, least is known about understanding the holistic phytomicrobiome composition and how they interact and function in stress conditions. This review identifies several gaps and essential questions that could enhance understanding of the complex interaction of microbiome, plant, and climate change. Utilizing eco-friendly approaches of naturally occurring synthetic microbial communities that enhance plant stress tolerance and leave fewer carbon-foot prints has been emphasized. However, understanding the mechanisms involved in stress signaling and responses by phytomicrobiome species under spatial and temporal climate changes is extremely important. Furthermore, the bacterial and fungal biome have been studied extensively, but the holistic interactome with archaea, viruses, oomycetes, protozoa, algae, and nematodes has seldom been studied. The inter-kingdom diversity, function, and potential role in improving environmental stress responses of plants are considerably important. In addition, much remains to be understood across organismal and ecosystem-level responses under dynamic and complex climate change conditions.

The Bacterial and Fungal Microbiota of the Mexican Rubiaceae Family Medicinal Plant Bouvardia ternifolia

Bouvardia ternifolia is a medicinal plant considered a source of therapeutic compounds, like the antitumoral cyclohexapeptide bouvardin. It is known that large number of secondary metabolites produced by plants results from the interaction of the host and adjacent or embedded microorganisms. Using high-throughput DNA sequencing of V3-16S and V5-18S ribosomal gene libraries, we characterized the endophytic, endophytic + epiphyte bacterial, and fungal communities associated to flowers, leaves, stems, and roots, as well as the rhizosphere. The Proteobacteria (average 80.7%) and Actinobacteria (average 14.7%) were the most abundant bacterial phyla, while Leotiomycetes (average 54.8%) and Dothideomycetes (average 27.4%) were the most abundant fungal classes. Differential abundance for the bacterial endophyte group showed a predominance of Erwinia, Propionibacterium, and Microbacterium genera, while Sclerotinia, Coccomyces, and Calycina genera predominated for fungi. The predictive metagenome analysis for bacteria showed significative abundance of pathways for secondary metabolite production, while a FUNguild analysis revealed the presence of pathotroph, symbiotroph, and saprotrophs in the fungal community. Intra and inter copresence and mutual exclusion interactions were identified for bacterial and fungal kingdoms in the endophyte communities. This work provides a description of the diversity and composition of bacterial and fungal microorganisms living in flowers, leaves, stems, roots, and the rhizosphere of this medicinal plant; thus, it paves the way towards an integral understanding in the production of therapeutic metabolites.

Cadmium-tolerant bacteria: current trends and applications in agriculture

Cadmium (Cd) is considered a toxic heavy metal; nevertheless, its toxicity fluctuates for different organisms. Cadmium-tolerant bacteria (CdtB) are diverse and non-phylogenetically related. Because of their ecological importance these bacteria become particularly relevant when pollution occurs and where human health is impacted. The aim of this review is to show the significance, culturable diversity, metabolic detoxification mechanisms of CdtB and their current uses in several bioremediation processes applied to agricultural soils. Further discussion addressed the technological devices and the possible advantages of genetically modified CdtB for diagnostic purposes in the future.

Metagenomic analysis reveals mechanisms of atrazine biodegradation promoted by tree species

Metagenomics has provided the discovery of genes and metabolic pathways involved in the degradation of xenobiotics. Some microorganisms can metabolize these compounds, potentiating phytoremediation in association with plant. This study aimed to study the metagenome and the occurrence of atrazine degradation genes in rhizospheric soils of the phytoremediation species Inga striata and Caesalphinea ferrea. The genera of microorganisms predominant in the rhizospheric soils of I. striata and C. ferrea were Mycobacterium, Conexibacter, Bradyrhizobium, Solirubrobacter, Rhodoplanes, Streptomyces, Geothrix, Gaiella, Nitrospira, and Haliangium. The atzD, atzE, and atzF genes were detected in the rhizospheric soils of I. striata and atzE and atzF in the rhizospheric soils of C. ferrea. The rhizodegradation by both tree species accelerates the degradation of atrazine residues, eliminating toxic effects on plants highly sensitive to this herbicide. This is the first report for the species Agrobacterium rhizogenes and Candidatus Muproteobacteria bacterium and Micromonospora genera as atrazine degraders.

Saline and Arid Soils: Impact on Bacteria, Plants, and their Interaction

Salinity and drought are the most important abiotic stresses hampering crop growth and yield. It has been estimated that arid areas cover between 41% and 45% of the total Earth area worldwide. At the same time, the world’s population is going to soon reach 9 billion and the survival of this huge amount of people is dependent on agricultural products. Plants growing in saline/arid soil shows low germination rate, short roots, reduced shoot biomass, and serious impairment of photosynthetic efficiency, thus leading to a substantial loss of crop productivity, resulting in significant economic damage. However, plants should not be considered as single entities, but as a superorganism, or a holobiont, resulting from the intimate interactions occurring between the plant and the associated microbiota. Consequently, it is very complex to define how the plant responds to stress on the basis of the interaction with its associated plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB). This review provides an overview of the physiological mechanisms involved in plant survival in arid and saline soils and aims at describing the interactions occurring between plants and its bacteriome in such perturbed environments. The potential of PGPB in supporting plant survival and fitness in these environmental conditions has been discussed.