Establishment and persistence of bacterial SynCom in the soil microbiome and the development of wheat (Triticum aestivum) in soils from different uses.

• Grant number: 24/01300-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2024
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Dini Andreote
• Grantee: Nariane de Andrade
• Supervisor: Timothy Hugh Mauchline
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Rothamsted Research, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/09977-6 - Microbiological characterization and ecological implication of inoculants in soils under integrated production systems, BP.DR

Abstract

The use of microbial inoculants contributes to plant development due to the numerous benefits of this interaction. Synthetic community inoculants (SynCom) are being used to increase the benefits provided. However, little is known about the ecological interactions in these communities and how these inoculants establish and persist in different land uses. Therefore, this project aims to verify the effect of using SynCom on microbial communities arising from different soil uses. The strains that will constitute SynCom will be selected in 3 steps: (1) selection through determination of specific functions of each isolate, (2) determination of antagonistic effects and (3) evaluation of the effects on plant development in square plates. The various selected species will form the SynCom and will be inoculated into wheat seeds in soils from 3 uses: permanent pasture, native vegetation and livestock-forest system. Two destructive collections will be carried out to evaluate the constitution of the bacterial community through sequencing of the 16S rDNA gene, which will also be compared with the genome of each isolate in order to track these microorganisms. In addition, qPCR will be performed with specific primers designed from the gyrB gene to quantify the multiple SynCom strains. The experiment will be conducted until harvest so that plant performance analyzes can be carried out. Finally, with the development of this project, we will determine the persistence of a SynCom in different land uses, in addition to making inferences about the ecological relationships to be established between inoculated microorganisms vs. native microbiome shaped by land use.