Helping hand
Plants do better when they get help from in the soil living microbes. New research from Dutch, Belgian and Swiss researchers shows that this effect is increased when these individual microbes also help each other.
The soil is full of microbes, fungi and bacteria. Lost of these microbes have a positive effect on plants. They not only help plants to grow better but also make them better suited to deal with stress. It is than not surprising that plants actively attract these beneficial microbes. In addition to plants, fungi cultivate their own microbiome. But the influence of this on plants was not yet known.
To find out, researchers grew prunella plants in different soil types. They did this in pots with different compartments. So could bacteria freely move from compartment to compartment, but roots and fungi were more restricted. After analysis of the microbes in the different compartments the researchers noticed that each zone had its own fungal and bacterial composition.
Together they help the plant to grow even better
Subsequently the researchers studied the influence of bacteria on the symbiosis between plants and fungi. First the researchers determined which bacteria lived together with the fungi. Subsequently, the researchers determined which bacteria lived together with the plants. These two groups they compared with each other. Three bacteria genera lived with both the fungi and the plants: Haliangium, Pseudomonas and Devosia.
To investigate the possible influence of those bacteria, the researchers isolated one bacteria: Devosia sp. ZB163. The researchers grew the plants with the bacteria and with or without fungi. It turned out that in the presence of Devosia sp. ZB163 the plants grew better. But when both fungi and bacteria where present, then the plants did even better still.
Thus beneficial bacteria not only have a beneficial effect on plants, but also on the with the plant living fungi. Together they help the plant to grow even better than they do on their own. The more of these beneficial interactions we are able to decipher, the more we can help plants to use these.
Literature
Zhang, C., van der Heijden, M.G.A., Dodds, B.K. et al. A tripartite bacterial-fungal-plant symbiosis in the mycorrhiza-shaped microbiome drives plant growth and mycorrhization. Microbiome 12, 13 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-023-01726-4
Plant en Zo 