Journal
ISME JOURNAL
Volume 15, Issue 9, Pages 2723-2737Publisher
SPRINGERNATURE
DOI: 10.1038/s41396-021-00966-2
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Funding
- National Key R&D Program of China [2017YFD0201101]
- Key Technology R&D Program of Tianjin [17YFZCNC00430]
- Creative Research for Young Scientists of Tianjin Academy of Agricultural Sciences (China) [2020001]
- US National Science Foundation [MCB 1651732]
- China Scholarship Council [201809120002]
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This study reveals that sucrose secreted from plant roots promotes solid surface motility (SSM) and root colonization by Bacillus subtilis through a previously unknown mechanism, suggesting a practical approach to enhance the prevalence of beneficial Bacillus species in plant protection.
Beneficial rhizobacteria promote plant growth and protect plants against phytopathogens. Effective colonization on plant roots is critical for the rhizobacteria to exert beneficial activities. How bacteria migrate swiftly in the soil of semisolid or solid nature remains unclear. Here we report that sucrose, a disaccharide ubiquitously deployed by photosynthetic plants for fixed carbon transport and storage, and abundantly secreted from plant roots, promotes solid surface motility (SSM) and root colonization by Bacillus subtilis through a previously uncharacterized mechanism. Sucrose induces robust SSM by triggering a signaling cascade, first through extracellular synthesis of polymeric levan, which in turn stimulates strong production of surfactin and hyper-flagellation of the cells. B. subtilis poorly colonizes the roots of Arabidopsis thaliana mutants deficient in root-exudation of sucrose, while exogenously added sucrose selectively shapes the rhizomicrobiome associated with the tomato plant roots, promoting specifically bacilli and pseudomonad. We propose that sucrose activates a signaling cascade to trigger SSM and promote rhizosphere colonization by B. subtilis. Our findings also suggest a practicable approach to boost prevalence of beneficial Bacillus species in plant protection.
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