Project description:Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42 is a representative organism for Gram positive soil bacteria associated with plant roots and beneficial to plant growth. It is of immense importance to understand mechanisms of this class of bacteria adapting to rhizosphere. In this work employing differential RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and Northern blot, we systematically identified transcription start sites of mRNAs as well as non-coding regulatory RNAs in FZB42. The genes regulated at different growth phases and located in polycistronic operons were also identified. A set of genes were re-annotated. In addition, a sRNA named Bas01 was identified to be involved in Bacillus sporulation and biofilm formation. The result we obtained provides valuable data for investigation of Bacillus gene expression and molecular details of rhizobacterial interaction with host plants.
Project description:Plants and rhizosphere microbes rely closely on each other, with plants supplying carbon to bacteria in root exudates, and bacteria mobilizing soil-bound phosphate for plant nutrition. When the phosphate supply becomes limiting for plant growth, the composition of root exudation changes, affecting rhizosphere microbial communities and microbially-mediated nutrient fluxes. To evaluate how plant phosphate deprivation affects rhizosphere bacteria, Lolium perenne seedlings were root-inoculated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa 7NR, and grown in axenic microcosms under different phosphate regimes (330 uM vs 3-6 uM phosphate). The effect of biological nutrient limitation was examined by DNA microarray studies of rhizobacterial gene expression.
Project description:Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42 is a representative organism for Gram positive soil bacteria associated with plant roots and beneficial to plant growth. It is of immense importance to understand mechanisms of this class of bacteria adapting to rhizosphere. In this work employing differential RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and Northern blot, we systematically identified transcription start sites of mRNAs as well as non-coding regulatory RNAs in FZB42. The genes regulated at different growth phases and located in polycistronic operons were also identified. A set of genes were re-annotated. In addition, a sRNA named Bas01 was identified to be involved in Bacillus sporulation and biofilm formation. The result we obtained provides valuable data for investigation of Bacillus gene expression and molecular details of rhizobacterial interaction with host plants. Examination of transcriptome profile of rhizobacterium B. amyloliquefaciens FZB42 grown under six conditions.
Project description:<p>Drought stress negatively impacts microbial activity, but the magnitude of stress responses are likely dependent on a diversity of below ground interactions. Populus trichocarpa individuals and no plant bulk soils were exposed to extended drought (~0.03% gravimetric water content (GWC) after 12d), re-wet, and a 12-d 'recovery' period to determine the effects of plant presence in mediating soil microbiome stability to water stress. Plant metabolomic analyses indicated that drought exposure increased host investment in C and N metabolic pathways (amino acids, fatty-acids, phenolic glycosides) regardless of recovery. Several metabolites positively correlated with root-associated microbial alpha diversity, but not those of soil communities. Soil bacterial community composition shifted with P. trichocarpa presence and with drought relative to irrigated controls, whereas soil fungal composition only shifted with plant presence. However, root fungal communities strongly shifted with drought, whereas root bacterial communities changed to a lesser degree. The proportion of bacterial water-stress opportunistic OTUs (enriched counts in drought) were high (~11%) at the end of drying phases, and maintained after re-wet, and recovery phases in bulk soils, but declined over time in soils with plants present. For root fungi opportunistic OTUs were high at the end of recovery in drought treatments (~17% abundance), although relatively not responsive in soils, particularly planted soils (< 0.5% abundance for sensitive or opportunistic). These data indicate that plants modulate soil and root associated microbial drought responses via tight plant-microbe linkages during extreme drought scenarios, but trajectories after extreme drought vary with plant habitat and microbial functional groups.</p>