Bacillus thuringiensis RZ2MS9, a tropical plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium, colonizes maize endophytically and alters the plant's production of volatile organic compounds during co-inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense Ab-V5

Author(s)

de Almeida, Jaqueline Raquel ^[1] ; Bonatelli, Maria Leticia ^{[2, 1]} ; Batista, Bruna Durante ^[1] ; Teixeira-Silva, Natalia Sousa ^[1] ; Mondin, Mateus ^[1] ; dos Santos, Rafaela Cristina ^[3] ; Bento, Jose Mauricio Simoes ^[3] ; de Almeida Hayashibara, Carolina Alessandra ^[1] ; Azevedo, Joao Lucio ^[1] ; Quecine, Maria Carolina ^[1]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Genet Luiz de Queiroz, Coll Agr, ESALQ, Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[2] Western Sydney Univ, Hawkesbury Inst Environm, Richmond, NSW - Australia

^[3] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Entomol Luiz de Queiroz, Coll Agr, ESALQ, Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY REPORTS; v. 13, n. 6 AUG 2021.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

The beneficial features of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are not limited to its role as an insecticide; it is also able to promote plant growth interacting with plants and other plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium (PGPR). The PGPR Bt strain RZ2MS9 is a multi-trait maize growth promoter. We obtained a stable mutant of RZ2MS9 labelled with green fluorescent protein (RZ2MS9-GFP). We demonstrated that the Bt RZ2MS9-GFP successfully colonizes maize's roots and leaves endophytically. We evaluated whether RZ2MS9 has an additive effect on plant growth promotion when co-inoculated with Azospirillum brasilense Ab-V5. The two strains combined enhanced maize's roots and shoots dry weight around 50% and 80%, respectively, when compared to the non-inoculated control. However, non-differences were observed comparing RZ2MS9 alone and when co-inoculated with Ab-V5, In addition, we used co-inoculation experiments in glass chambers to analyse the plant's volatile organic compounds (VOCs) production during the maize-RZ2MS9 and maize-RZ2MS9-Ab-V5 interaction. We found that the single and co-inoculation altered maize's VOCs emission profile, with an increase in the production of indoles in the co-inoculation. Collectively, these results increase our knowledge about the interaction between the Bt and maize, and provide a new possibility of combined application with the commercial inoculant A. brasilense Ab-V5. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/16868-8 - Modulation of the interaction among growth promoting bacteria and corn by the quorum sensing system
• Grantee: Jaqueline Raquel de Almeida
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• FAPESP's process: 15/01188-9 - Phenotypic and genome-wide association studies of the interaction between Burkholderia ambifaria RZ2MS16, a plant growth promoter rhizobacteria, and the tropical maize
• Grantee: João Lúcio de Azevedo
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 14/50871-0 - INCT 2014: National Institute of Science and Technology of Semiochemicals in Agriculture
• Grantee: José Roberto Postali Parra
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants