Plant-Microbe Interaction: State-of-the-Art Research in Australia

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Microbe Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2023) | Viewed by 4717

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC 3083, Australia
Interests: grass-fungal endophyte interactions; perennial ryegrass/tall fescue—epichloe spp. interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
School of Applied Systems Biology, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Interests: plant and microbial systems biology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is all about beneficial microbes and their unique interactions with plants. Living within and on every plant are microorganisms that, being part of the plant microbiome, play a major role in the host plant’s wellbeing. As smaller organisms with short life cycles, they are involved in the evolution of the host plant by taking part in the host’s adaptation to environmental stresses. Consequently, microorganisms are often associated with enhanced tolerance to abiotic stresses and resistance to pests and diseases and have been exploited for enhanced plant performance in a range of different industries.

This Special Issue will cover all aspects of host-microbe interaction, including discovery/characterization of novel plant associated organisms, genetics and genomics of plant-microbe interactions, the role of endophytes in the plant microbiome, discovery/characterization of microbe-derived performance-enhancing compounds, and application of microbes for enhanced plant performance. This Special Edition will also include any new developments in the field.

Dr. Kathryn M. Guthridge
Prof. Dr. German Spangenberg
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • beneficial microbes
  • bacteria
  • fungi
  • endophyte
  • microbiome
  • plant performance
  • microbe-mediated enhanced stress tolerance
  • bioprotection
  • agriculture

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3227 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Rock Mineral and Traditional Phosphate Fertilizers on Mycorrhizal Communities in Pasture Plants
by Ahmed R. Alsharmani, Zakaria M. Solaiman, Matthias Leopold, Lynette K. Abbott and Bede S. Mickan
Microorganisms 2023, 11(4), 1051; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11041051 - 17 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1577
Abstract
Intensive fertilizer use can constrain contributions from soil biological processes in pastures, including those associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. We evaluated the effect of fertilizers of different P solubility on the colonization of the roots of two common pasture plants by a [...] Read more.
Intensive fertilizer use can constrain contributions from soil biological processes in pastures, including those associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. We evaluated the effect of fertilizers of different P solubility on the colonization of the roots of two common pasture plants by a community of AM fungi in a pasture soil. The treatments were a rock mineral fertilizer, a chemical fertilizer and a microbial inoculant. Subterranean clover and annual ryegrass were grown in pots for 10 weeks. Both fertilizers reduced the proportion and length of roots colonized by naturally occurring AM fungi. However, by 10 weeks, there was a much greater length of mycorrhizal root for annual ryegrass than for subterranean clover. The relative abundance of mycorrhizal fungi in the families Glomeraceae and Acaulosporaceae in roots was not affected by the form of fertilizer, but diversity indices of AM fungi in roots were altered. The chemical fertilizer had a greater negative effect on AM fungal diversity indices in the annual ryegrass roots compared with the subterranean clover roots. The reduction in OTU richness of AM fungi with fertilizer application corresponded with reduced soil pH. Differential effects of P fertilizers on naturally occurring AM fungi in this agricultural soil have the potential to influence the efficacy of P fertilizer use and dominance of plant species in grasslands. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant-Microbe Interaction: State-of-the-Art Research in Australia)
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15 pages, 1624 KiB  
Article
Characterizing Effects of Microbial Biostimulants and Whole-Soil Inoculums for Native Plant Revegetation
by Matthew Alfonzetti, Sebastien Doleac, Charlotte H. Mills, Rachael V. Gallagher and Sasha Tetu
Microorganisms 2023, 11(1), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11010055 - 24 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2585
Abstract
Soil microbes play important roles in plant health and ecosystem functioning, however, they can often be disturbed or depleted in degraded lands. During seed-based revegetation of such sites there is often very low germination and seedling establishment success, with recruitment of beneficial microbes [...] Read more.
Soil microbes play important roles in plant health and ecosystem functioning, however, they can often be disturbed or depleted in degraded lands. During seed-based revegetation of such sites there is often very low germination and seedling establishment success, with recruitment of beneficial microbes to the rhizosphere one potential contributor to this problem. Here we investigated whether Australian native plant species may benefit from planting seed encapsulated within extruded seed pellets amended with one of two microbe-rich products: a commercial vermicast extract biostimulant or a whole-soil inoculum from a healthy reference site of native vegetation. Two manipulative glasshouse trials assessing the performance of two Australian native plant species (Acacia parramattensis and Indigofera australis) were carried out in both unmodified field-collected soil (trial 1) and in the same soil reduced in nutrients and microbes (trial 2). Seedling emergence and growth were compared between pelleted and bare-seeded controls and analyzed alongside soil nutrient concentrations and culturable microbial community assessments. The addition of microbial amendments maintained, but did not improve upon, high levels of emergence in both plant species relative to unamended pellets. In trial 1, mean time to emergence of Acacia parramattensis seedlings was slightly shorter in both amended pellet types relative to the standard pellets, and in trial 2, whole-soil inoculum pellets showed significantly improved growth metrics. This work shows that there is potential for microbial amendments to positively affect native plant emergence and growth, however exact effects are dependent on the type of amendment, the plant species, and the characteristics of the planting site soil. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant-Microbe Interaction: State-of-the-Art Research in Australia)
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