Abstract
Abstract Background and aims Plant-beneficial microbes may attenuate climate change-induced stresses on plants such as drought. We investigated the potential of beneficial microbial consortia (BMc) on plant growth and rhizosphere bacterial/archaeal community under drought. Methods Seeds of Zea mays B73 were inoculated with six plant-beneficial bacterial isolates either alone or combined in two three-member consortia (BMc1, BMc2) before sowing in loamy or sandy substrates in the greenhouse. A known effective consortium (BMc3) was included as positive control. Drought treatment was established with the BMc treatments by omitting watering in the last of the five weeks growth period. The maize growth in single and BMc treatments was determined. Colony-forming units (CFUs) of inoculants were evaluated by selective plating, and effects of BMc treatments on the native rhizosphere bacterial/archaeal community were assessed using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of basal root and root tip rhizosphere of plants grown in loam. Results In both substrates and water conditions, CFUs of single and BMc inoculations were higher at rhizosphere basal roots than root tips. Under well-watered conditions, seed inoculation with a single bacterial isolate had no effect on maize growth in both substrates. BMc treatment resulted in higher shoot (but not root) growth compared to non-inoculated controls in both water conditions in loam. The root zone was the most important driver for bacterial/archaeal beta-diversity, followed by water conditions, while BMc treatments showed no effect. Conclusion Our study suggests that BMc seed inoculation has the potential to attenuate drought stress during maize growth.
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Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
Seed inoculation with a single bacterial isolate had no effect on maize growth under well-watered conditions
Zea maysNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“maize plants”
e1“Under well-watered conditions, seed inoculation with a single bacterial isolate had no effect on maize growth in both substrates”
Claim · model-written summary
The BMc treatment increased maize shoot growth compared with non-inoculated controls in loam, but not root growth
- Treatment
- BMc treatmente2
- Outcome
- shoot (but not root) growthe2
- Direction
- highere2
- Qualifier
- but not roote2
- Comparator
- non-inoculated controlse2
- Setting
- loame2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“maize plants”
e2“BMc treatment resulted in higher shoot (but not root) growth compared to non-inoculated controls in both water conditions in loam”
Claim · model-written summary
The root zone was the most important driver of bacterial and archaeal beta-diversity in the maize rhizosphere
- Organ / stage
- root zonee3
- Outcome
- bacterial/archaeal beta-diversitye3
- Qualifier
- the most important drivere3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“maize plants”
e3“The root zone was the most important driver for bacterial/archaeal beta-diversity”
Claim · model-written summary
BMc treatments had no effect on bacterial and archaeal beta-diversity in the maize rhizosphere
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“maize plants”
e3“The root zone was the most important driver for bacterial/archaeal beta-diversity”
e4“while BMc treatments showed no effect”
Claim · model-written summary
BMc seed inoculation has the potential to attenuate drought stress during maize growth
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“maize plants”
e5“BMc seed inoculation has the potential to attenuate drought stress during maize growth”
Claim · model-written summary
CFUs of single and BMc inoculations were higher at basal roots than at root tips in maize
- Organ / stage
- basal rootse6
- Treatment
- single and BMc inoculationse6
- Outcome
- CFUse6
- Direction
- highere6
- Comparator
- root tipse6
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“maize plants”
e6“CFUs of single and BMc inoculations were higher at rhizosphere basal roots than root tips”
The same questions in other papers
inoculation · growth · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
634 papers in the same direction as this paper · 61 in the opposite direction · 3 reporting no difference from an alternative
- positive
- positive
- positive
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