FEMS Microbiology Ecology | 2019
Enrichment of phosphate solubilizing bacteria during late developmental stages of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.)
Abstract
&NA; Understanding the ecology of phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSBs) is critical for developing better strategies to increase crop productivity. In this study, the diversity of PSBs and of the total bacteria in the rhizosphere of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) cultivated in organic, integrated and conventional farming systems was compared at four developmental stages of its lifecycle. Both selective culture and high‐throughput sequencing analysis of 16S rRNA amplicons indicated that Enterobacter with strong or very strong in vivo phosphate solubilization activities was enriched in the rhizosphere during the fruiting stage. The high‐throughput sequencing analysis results demonstrated that farming systems explained 23% of total bacterial community variation. Plant development and farming systems synergistically shaped the rhizospheric bacterial community, in which the degree of variation influenced by farming systems decreased over the plant development phase from 56% to 26.3% to 16.3%, and finally to no significant effect as the plant reached at fruiting stage. Pangenome analysis indicated that two‐component and transporter systems varied between the rhizosphere and soil PSBs. This study elucidated the complex interactions among farming systems, plant development and rhizosphere microbiomes. &NA; Graphical Abstract Figure. The rhizospheric microbial community structure of eggplant was susceptible to soil type during early plant development stages, and was largely shaped by plant development and recruitment of Enterobacter PSBs during the fruiting stage.