AUTHOR=Zhang Li-Na , Wang Da-Cheng , Hu Qiang , Dai Xiang-Qun , Xie Yue-Sheng , Li Qing , Liu Hua-Mei , Guo Jian-Hua 

TITLE=Consortium of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria Strains Suppresses Sweet Pepper Disease by Altering the Rhizosphere Microbiota

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.01668

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2019.01668

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Beneficial microorganisms have been extensively used to make plants more resistant to abiotic and biotic stress. We previously identified a consortium of three plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) strains (<italic>Bacillus cereus</italic> AR156, <italic>Bacillus subtilis</italic> SM21, and <italic>Serratia</italic> sp. XY21; hereafter “BBS”) as a promising and environmentally friendly biocontrol agent. In this study, the effect of BBS on a soil-borne disease of sweet pepper was evaluated. Application of BBS significantly reduced the prevalence of phytophthora blight and improved fruit quality and soil properties relative to the control. BBS was able to alter the soil bacterial community: it significantly increased the abundances of <italic>Burkholderia</italic>, <italic>Comamonas</italic>, and <italic>Ramlibacter</italic>, which were negatively associated with disease severity, relative to the control. A redundancy analysis suggested that BBS-treated soil samples were dominated by <italic>Burkholderia</italic>, <italic>Comamonas</italic>, <italic>Ramlibacter</italic>, <italic>Sporichthya</italic>, <italic>Achromobacter</italic>, and <italic>Pontibacter</italic>; abundance of these genera was related to total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), ammonium nitrogen (AN), total potassium (TP), and available phosphorus (AP) contents. This suggests that BBS treatment shifted the microbe community to one that suppressed soil-borne disease and improved the soil chemical properties.</p>