Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Parlier, California » San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center » Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #391504
Research Project: Develop Water Management Strategies to Sustain Water Productivity and Protect Water Quality in Irrigated Agriculture

Location: Water Management Research

Title: Specific metabolites drive the deterministic assembly of diseased rhizosphere microbiome through weakening microbial degradation of autotoxin

Author
item WEN, TAO - Nanjing University
item XIE, PENGHAO - Nanjing University
item PENTON, C - Arizona State University
item Hale, Lauren
item Thomashow, Linda
item YANG, SHENGDIE - Nanjing University
item DING, ZHEXU - Nanjing University
item SU, YAQI - Nanjing University
item YUAN, JUN - Nanjing University
item SHEN, QIRONG - Nanjing University

Submitted to: Microbiome
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/19/2022
Publication Date: 10/21/2022
Citation: Wen, T., Xie, P., Penton, C.R., Hale, L.E., Thomashow, L.S., Yang, S., Ding, Z., Su, Y., Yuan, J., Shen, Q. 2022. Specific metabolites drive the deterministic assembly of diseased rhizosphere microbiome through weakening microbial degradation of autotoxin. Microbiome. 10:177. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-022-01375-z.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-022-01375-z

Interpretive Summary: We identified a set of root metabolites that were unique to tomato plants with resistance towards bacterial wilt disease. These metabolites could not be used by the causative pathogen, Ralstonia solanacearum, but were efficiently utilized by a diverse group of commensal rhizobacteria. When applied as a mixture, the metabolites reduced wilt onset in important agricultural crops, tomato, pepper, and eggplant. This research suggests the potential use of plant metabolites to engineer rhizosphere microbiomes that confer disease suppression.

Technical Abstract: The concept of using prebiotics, i.e. compounds that selectively stimulate the growth and activity of beneficial microorganisms, has been proposed for managing human gut health, but can also be applied to plants. Similar to human gut flora, plant rhizosphere microbiomes improve nutrient acquisition and disease resistance. However, there is a dearth of strong empirical evidence demonstrating desirable outcomes of rhizosphere prebiotics. In this study we investigated the metabolomics of the rhizosphere of the tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) plant in a wilt disease (caused by the bacterial pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum) conductive soil. We identified a set of metabolites that were exclusively used by commensal bacteria in the tomato rhizosphere but not efficiently used by the pathogen. When the compounds were applied as a mix in 4 doses to soils at a rate 50 µmol per plant/1 µmol g-1 soil, they effectively protected tomato and other Solanaceae crops, pepper (Capsicum annuum) and eggplant (Solanum melongena), from pathogen invasion. The disease decline conferred by the metabolites was linked to increased abundance and diversity of commensal microbes in the rhizosphere and a reduction in pathogen load in the soil. Collectively, we report a novel pathway for using active metabolites in the plant rhizosphere as prebiotics to effectively control soil-borne diseases via engineering the rhizosphere microbiome.