Dataset Information

Inoculation With a Microbe Isolated From the Negev Desert Enhances Corn Growth.

ABSTRACT: Corn (Zea mays L.) is not only an important food source, but also has numerous uses, including for biofuels, fillers for cosmetics, glues, and so on. The amount of corn grown in the U.S. has significantly increased since the 1960's and with it, the demand for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides/fungicides to enhance its production. However, the downside of the continuous use of these products, especially N and P fertilizers, has been an increase in N2O emissions and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as well as run-off into waterways that fuel pollution and algal blooms. These approaches to agriculture, especially if exacerbated by climate change, will result in decreased soil health as well as human health. We searched for microbes from arid, native environments that are not being used for agriculture because we reasoned that indigenous microbes from such soils could promote plant growth and help restore degraded soils. Employing cultivation-dependent methods to isolate bacteria from the Negev Desert in Israel, we tested the effects of several microbial isolates on corn in both greenhouse and small field studies. One strain, Dietzia cinnamea 55, originally identified as Planomicrobium chinense, significantly enhanced corn growth over the uninoculated control in both greenhouse and outside garden experiments. We sequenced and analyzed the genome of this bacterial species to elucidate some of the mechanisms whereby D. cinnamea 55 promoted plant growth. In addition, to ensure the biosafety of this previously unknown plant growth promoting bacterial (PGPB) strain as a potential bioinoculant, we tested the survival and growth of Caenorhabditis elegans and Galleria mellonella (two animal virulence tests) as well as plants in response to D. cinnamea 55 inoculation. We also looked for genes for potential virulence determinants as well as for growth promotion.

SUBMITTER: Khan N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7316896 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Inoculation With a Microbe Isolated From the Negev Desert Enhances Corn Growth.

Khan Noor N Martínez-Hidalgo Pilar P Humm Ethan A EA Maymon Maskit M Kaplan Drora D Hirsch Ann M AM

Frontiers in microbiology 20200619

Corn (<i>Zea mays</i> L.) is not only an important food source, but also has numerous uses, including for biofuels, fillers for cosmetics, glues, and so on. The amount of corn grown in the U.S. has significantly increased since the 1960's and with it, the demand for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides/fungicides to enhance its production. However, the downside of the continuous use of these products, especially N and P fertilizers, has been an increase in N<sub>2</sub>O emissions and other gree ...[more]

PMID: 32636811

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Project description:Background and aimsThe ecological, evolutionary and genetic bases of population differentiation in a variable environment are often related to the selection pressures that plants experience. We compared differences in several growth- and defence-related traits in two isolated populations of Acacia raddiana trees from sites at either end of an extreme environmental gradient in the Negev desert.MethodsWe used random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) to determine the molecular differences between populations. We grew plants under two levels of water, three levels of nutrients and three levels of herbivory to test for phenotypic plasticity and adaptive phenotypic plasticity.Key resultsThe RAPD analyses showed that these populations are highly genetically differentiated. Phenotypic plasticity in various morphological traits in A. raddiana was related to patterns of population genetic differentiation between the two study sites. Although we did not test for maternal effects in these long-lived trees, significant genotype × environment (G × E) interactions in some of these traits indicated that such plasticity may be adaptive.ConclusionsThe main selection pressure in this desert environment, perhaps unsurprisingly, is water. Increased water availability resulted in greater growth in the southern population, which normally receives far less rain than the northern population. Even under the conditions that we defined as low water and/or nutrients, the performance of the seedlings from the southern population was significantly better, perhaps reflecting selection for these traits. Consistent with previous studies of this genus, there was no evidence of trade-offs between physical and chemical defences and plant growth parameters in this study. Rather, there appeared to be positive correlations between plant size and defence parameters. The great variation in several traits in both populations may result in a diverse potential for responding to selection pressures in different environments.

Project description:Previous studies with Paenibacillus lentimorbus B-30488" (hereafter referred as B-30488), a plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) isolated from cow's milk, revealed its capabilities to improve plant quality under normal and stress conditions. Present study investigates its potential as a biocontrol agent against an economically important virus, Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), in Nicotiana tabacum cv. White Burley plants and delineates the physical, biophysical, biochemical and molecular perturbations due to the trilateral interactions of PGPR-host-CMV. Soil inoculation of B-30488 enhanced the plant vigor while significantly decreased the virulence and virus RNA accumulation by ~12 fold (91%) in systemic leaves of CMV infected tobacco plants as compared to the control ones. Histology of these leaves revealed the improved tissue's health and least aging signs in B-30488 inoculated tobacco plants, with or without CMV infection, and showed lesser intercellular spaces between collenchyma cells, reduced amount of xyloglucans and pectins in connecting primary cells, and higher polyphenol accumulation in hypodermis layer extending to collenchyma cells. B-30488 inoculation has favorably maneuvered the essential biophysical (ion leakage and photosynthetic efficiency) and biochemical (sugar, proline, chlorophyll, malondialdehyde, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase) attributes of tobacco plants to positively regulate and release the virus stress. Moreover, activities of defense related enzymes (ascorbate peroxidase, guaiacol peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and catalase) induced due to CMV-infection were ameliorated with inoculation of B-30488, suggesting systemic induced resistance mediated protection against CMV in tobacco. The quantitative RT-PCR analyses of the genes related to normal plant development, stress and pathogenesis also corroborate well with the biochemical data and revealed the regulation (either up or down) of these genes in favor of plant to combat the CMV mediated stress. These improvements led tobacco plant to produce more flowers and seeds with no negative impact on plant health. The present study may advocate the applicability of B-30488 for crop yield improvement in virus infested areas.

Dataset Information

Inoculation With a Microbe Isolated From the Negev Desert Enhances Corn Growth.

Publications

Inoculation With a Microbe Isolated From the Negev Desert Enhances Corn Growth.

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