No abstract

Many species of fungi can cause disease in plants, animals and humans. Accurate and robust detection and quantification of fungi is essential for diagnosis, modeling and surveillance. Also direct detection of fungi enables a deeper understanding of natural microbial communities, particularly as a great many fungi are difficult or impossible to cultivate. In the last decade, effective amplification platforms, probe development and various quantitative PCR technologies have revolutionized research on fungal detection and identification. Examples of the latest technology in fungal detection and differentiation are discussed here.

The role of rhizosphere microbiota in the resistance of tomato plant against soil-borne Fusarium wilt disease (FWD) remains unclear. Here, we showed that the FWD incidence was significantly negatively correlated with the diversity of both rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities. Using the microbiological culturomic approach, we selected 205 unique strains to construct different synthetic communities (SynComs), which were inoculated into germ-free tomato seedlings, and their roles in suppressing FWD were monitored using omics approach. Cross-kingdom (fungi and bacteria) SynComs were most effective in suppressing FWD than those of Fungal or Bacterial SynComs alone. This effect was underpinned by a combination of molecular mechanisms related to plant immunity and microbial interactions contributed by the bacterial and fungal communities. This study provides new insight into the dynamics of microbiota in pathogen suppression and host immunity interactions. Also, the formulation and manipulation of SynComs for functional complementation constitute a beneficial strategy in controlling soil-borne disease.