Beneficial microbes isolated from the strawberry rhizosphere: development of growth-promoting and anthracnose-suppressive SynComs
摘要
Soil rhizosphere microorganisms play crucial roles in the regulation of plant growth and disease resistance. This study aimed to construct stable growth-promoting and anthracnose-suppressive synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) using beneficial microbes isolated from the strawberry rhizosphere. Reanalysis of published high-throughput sequencing data confirmed that the core rhizosphere microbial communities of strawberry across different substrates were dominated by phyla such as Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes, and genera Pseudomonas and Streptomyces (typical plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria) were significantly enriched. Using functional screening, 90 cultivable strains were isolated, including 14 phosphate-solubilizing, 13 siderophore-producing, 14 indole-3-acetic acid-secreting, and 2 ACC deaminase-active strains were identified. Pot experiments confirmed that 5 strains had significant growth-promoting effects and that 14 strains had antagonistic activity against Colletotrichum siamense. Two SynComs were constructed based on non-antagonistic interactions and functional complementarity: SC1 (composed of strains A11, A16, B19, B20, and P28H4) for growth promotion and SC2 (composed of strains A12 and B12) for disease suppression. SC1 significantly increased the shoot biomass and root length of strawberry compared to the best single strain, and SC2 exhibited a control efficiency of over 50% under sterile conditions and maintained a high average control efficacy of 76.4 ± 3.2% in various non-sterile complex soils. These findings demonstrate that artificially constructed SynComs enhance strawberry productivity and disease resistance through their direct functional effects and by reshaping the rhizosphere microbial community restructuring, providing valuable candidate microbial resources and a theoretical basis for future strawberry microbe-assisted cultivation, while further field trials are required to verify their practical potential in sustainable agricultural systems.