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BIO-03 Diversity of marine host-associated microbiomes
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Inoculation with plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria enhanced seagrass photosynthesis performance and shifted rhizosphere microbiome
Weiguo Zhou* , South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Juan Ling, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Zhimeng Xu, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Qingsong Yang, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Hongbin Liu, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Anning Suo, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Junde Dong, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences |
Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) inoculation is an important strategy for the sustainability of agriculture and represents an appealing solution to future seagrass ecological restoration in the context of disturbances. However, there is little knowledge on PGPR-mediated promotion of seagrass growth. Here, we screened two PGPR isolates from seagrass ecosystem in reef and coastal regions, and subsequently conducted microcosm experiment to elucidate how PGPR inoculation will affect seagrass growth and shape their rhizosphere microbiome. The results showed that two screened PGPR strains, Raoultella terrigena NXT28 and Bacillus aryabhattai XT37, excelled at expressing a specific subset of plant-beneficial functions and increased the photosynthetic rates of seagrass host. Both PGPR inoculation decreased the abundance of sulfur cycling bacteria and improved the abundance of putative iron cycling bacteria in seagrass rhizosphere. Phosphate-solubilizing bacteria XT37 was also successfully colonize seagrass rhizosphere under the artificial growth conditions in the microcosms. While nitrogen-fixing bacteria NXT28 had the potential to change the microbial nitrogen cycle with denitrification in rhizosphere and dissimilatory nitrate reduction and assimilatory nitrate reduction in bulk sediment, respectively. These findings have implications for strategies to harness microbial communities to confer sulfide tolerance in coastal seagrasses. In future studies, more efforts should be taken in uncovering the detailed process of PGPR-induced biological mechanisms and interactions driving the observed effects, which would be very useful for the commercialization of PGPR in seagrass restoration application. |
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