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Recent Advances in Agricultural Microbiology and Biotechnology

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A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Microbial Diversity and Culture Collections".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2023) | Viewed by 13556

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Barbara Blasi

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Guest Editor

Department for Pathobiology, Institute of Pathology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria
Interests: mycology; pathology; molecular biology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, crop production—both for human and animal nutrition—has been particularly challenged by several difficulties, especially those imposed by an ever-growing human population, environmental degradation and the consequent lack of nutrient resources.

Intensive agriculture is necessary to sustain an overpopulated planet Earth, yet it often poses a threat to biodiversity, causing a depauperation not only of the genetic diversity of the cultivated species, but also of the microbial communities directly or indirectly connected to crop production.

For this reason, the scientific community is focusing on novel strategies to improve crop productivity in a more sustainable and inclusive manner. This includes the exploration of the available microbial and plant diversity and the application of novel strategies to make use of that biodiversity to increase productivity without increasing environment overexploitation in parallel. The use of engineered plants or microorganisms to improve plant growth and harvest offers crops the capacity to withstand suboptimal resource availability (drought, lack of nutrients) and is one of the main strategies that can be adopted in this frame. “Omics” sciences are of great support in this context in revealing those genes and metabolic processes that can be genetically ameliorated or supported by microbial communities.

The current Special Issue aims to collect manuscripts that focus on microbial and plant biodiversity as well as microbial and plant biotechnologies, including “omics” studies applied to agriculture and agro-microbiology, with the aim to widen the perspective on the issues mentioned above and their possible solutions.

Dr. Barbara Blasi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

biodiversity
agro-environmental biotechnology
sustainable agriculture
“omics” sciences
bio-pesticides

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 3384 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cross Cultivation on Homologous/Heterologous Plant-Based Culture Media Empowers Host-Specific and Real Time In Vitro Signature of Plant Microbiota

by Hend Elsawey, Eman H. Nour, Tarek R. Elsayed, Rahma A. Nemr, Hanan H. Youssef, Mervat A. Hamza, Mohamed Abbas, Mahmoud El-Tahan, Mohamed Fayez, Silke Ruppel and Nabil A. Hegazi

Diversity 2023, 15(1), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15010046 - 30 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1920

Abstract

Alliances of microbiota with plants are masked by the inability of in vitro cultivation of their bulk. Pure cultures piled in international centers originated from dissimilar environments/hosts. Reporting that plant root/leaf-based culture media support the organ-specific growth of microbiota, it was of interest to further investigate if a plant-based medium prepared from homologous (maize) supports specific/adapted microbiota compared to another prepared from heterologous plants (sunflower). The culture-independent community of maize phyllosphere was compared to communities cross-cultivated on plant broth-based media: CFU counts and taxa prevalence (PCR-DGGE; Illumina MiSeq amplicon sequencing). Similar to total maize phyllospheric microbiota, culture-dependent communities were overwhelmed by Proteobacteria (>94.3–98.3%); followed by Firmicutes (>1.3–3.7%), Bacteroidetes (>0.01–1.58%) and Actinobacteria (>0.06–0.34%). Differential in vitro growth on homologous versus heterologous plant-media enriched/restricted various taxa. In contrast, homologous cultivation over represented members of Proteobacteria (ca. > 98.0%), mainly Pseudomonadaceae and Moraxellaceae; heterologous cultivation and R2A enriched Firmicutes (ca. > 3.0%). The present strategy simulates/fingerprints the chemical composition of host plants to expand the culturomics of plant microbiota, advance real-time in vitro cultivation and lab-keeping of compatible plant microbiota, and identify preferential pairing of plant-microbe partners toward future synthetic community (SynComs) research and use in agriculture. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Agricultural Microbiology and Biotechnology)

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13 pages, 3072 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Funneliformis mosseae Inoculation Enhances Cucurbita pepo L. Plant Growth and Fruit Yield by Reshaping Rhizosphere Microbial Community Structure

by Junsong Wang, Wenjiang Fu, Chenyu Sun, Shuai Cai and Cheng Tang

Diversity 2022, 14(11), 932; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14110932 - 30 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1774

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are essential components of the soil microbiome that can facilitate plant growth and enhance abiotic and biotic stress resistance. However, the mechanisms via which AMF inoculation influences Cucurbita pepo L. plant growth and fruit yield remain unclear. Here, we conducted pot experiments to investigate bacterial and fungal community structure in the rhizosphere of C. pepo plants inoculated with Funneliformis mosseae (Nicoll. & Gerd.) Gerd. & Trappe based on 16S ribosomal RNA and internal transcribed spacer gene sequencing. The α-diversity of bacteria increased significantly following F. mosseae inoculation, whereas the α-diversity of fungi exhibited an opposite trend (p < 0.01). The relative abundances of major bacterial phyla, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Chloroflexi, together with the fungal phylum Ascomycota, were all higher in inoculated samples than in uninoculated controls. F. mosseae inoculation led to remarkable enrichment of potentially beneficial taxa (e.g., Streptomyces, Sphingomonas, Lysobacter, and Trichoderma), in stark contrast to depletion of fungal pathogens (e.g., Botryotrichum, Acremonium, Fusarium, and Plectosphaerella). Pathways related to amino acid metabolism and antibiotic biosynthesis were upregulated by F. mosseae inoculation, whereas pathways involved in infectious diseases were downregulated. The results suggest that F. mosseae inoculation reshapes the rhizosphere microbiome, thereby augmenting C. pepo plant growth and fruit yield. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Agricultural Microbiology and Biotechnology)

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Review

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21 pages, 1506 KiB

Open AccessReview

Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria (PGPB) with Biofilm-Forming Ability: A Multifaceted Agent for Sustainable Agriculture

by Nur Ajijah, Angelika Fiodor, Alok Kumar Pandey, Anuj Rana and Kumar Pranaw

Diversity 2023, 15(1), 112; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15010112 - 13 Jan 2023

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 8092

Abstract

Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) enhance plant growth, as well as protect plants from several biotic and abiotic stresses through a variety of mechanisms. Therefore, the exploitation of PGPB in agriculture is feasible as it offers sustainable and eco-friendly approaches to maintaining soil health while increasing crop productivity. The vital key of PGPB application in agriculture is its effectiveness in colonizing plant roots and the phyllosphere, and in developing a protective umbrella through the formation of microcolonies and biofilms. Biofilms offer several benefits to PGPB, such as enhancing resistance to adverse environmental conditions, protecting against pathogens, improving the acquisition of nutrients released in the plant environment, and facilitating beneficial bacteria–plant interactions. Therefore, bacterial biofilms can successfully compete with other microorganisms found on plant surfaces. In addition, plant-associated PGPB biofilms are capable of protecting colonization sites, cycling nutrients, enhancing pathogen defenses, and increasing tolerance to abiotic stresses, thereby increasing agricultural productivity and crop yields. This review highlights the role of biofilms in bacterial colonization of plant surfaces and the strategies used by biofilm-forming PGPB. Moreover, the factors influencing PGPB biofilm formation at plant root and shoot interfaces are critically discussed. This will pave the role of PGPB biofilms in developing bacterial formulations and addressing the challenges related to their efficacy and competence in agriculture for sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Agricultural Microbiology and Biotechnology)

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