Pedosphere (5): 893--900, 2025
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2025 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
| Co-inoculation of protist and Bacillus enhances plant growth via reshaping rhizosphere bacterial community composition and function |
Qihui LÜ1, Chen LIU1, Ying GUI1, Yang YUE1, Xiao WANG1, Zeyuan ZHOU1, Ying YUAN1, Yijing WANG1, Boting XU1, Zhihui XU1 , Mohammadhossein RAVANBAKHSH2, Alexandre JOUSSET1, Wu XIONG1, Qirong SHEN1 |
1 Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Solid Organic Waste Utilization, Key Lab of Organic-Based Fertilizers of China, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Ministry of Education Engineering Center of Resource-Saving Fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095 (China)
2 Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht CH 3584 (The Netherlands) |
| ABSTRACT |
| Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) have been widely used for the promotion of plant performance. Predatory protists can influence the taxonomic and functional composition of rhizosphere bacteria. However, research on the impact of the interaction between protist and PGPR on plant performance remains at a very early stage. Here, we examined the impacts of individual inoculation of protist (Colpoda inflata, Dimastigella trypaniformis, or Vermamoeba vermiformis) or the PGPR strain Bacillus velezensis SQR9 as well as the co-inoculation of the protist C. inflata and B. velezensis SQR9 on the growth of tomato plants. We found that all individual protists and Bacillus could promote plant growth compared to the control with no microbe inoculation, with the co-inoculation of C. inflata and B. velezensis SQR9 achieving the greatest performance, including plant height, fresh weight, and dry weight. Different protists harbored distinct rhizosphere bacterial communities, with the co-inoculation of protist and Bacillus resulting in the lowest bacterial diversity and driving significant changes in community structure and composition, particularly by increasing the relative abundance of Proteobacteria. Random forest model highlighted Cellvibrio as the most important bacterial predictor of plant growth, which was enriched after protist inoculation, especially after the mixed inoculation of protist and Bacillus. We further found that bacterial functional genes of nitrogen metabolism were the key determinants of plant growth. These results indicate that the interaction between protists and Bacillus can support plant growth by reshaping rhizosphere bacterial community composition and function. Understanding the interaction mechanisms between protist and PGPR is crucial for their effective utilization in sustainable agriculture. |
| Key Words: nitrogen metabolism,plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria,plant performance,predatory protists,protist predation,rhizosphere bacterial communities |
| Citation: Lü Q H, Liu C, Gui Y, Yue Y, Wang X, Zhou Z Y, Yuan Y, Wang Y J, Xu B T, Xu Z H, Ravanbakhsh M, Jousset A, Xiong W, Shen Q R. 2025. Co-inoculation of protist and Bacillus enhances plant growth via reshaping rhizosphere bacterial community composition and function. Pedosphere. 35(5):893-900. |
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