Lead (Pb) is a common environmental contaminant found in soils. Unlike other metals, Pb has no biological role, and is potentially toxic to microorganisms. Effects of low (1 ppm) and high (500–2000) levels of lead (Pb) upon the soil microbial community was investigated by the PCR/DGGE analysis of the 16S and nirK gene markers, indicative of general microbial community and denitrifying community, respectively. Community analysis by use of those markers had shown that Pb has detectable effects upon the community diversity even at the lowest concentration tested. Analysis of sample diversity and similarity between the samples suggested that there are several thresholds crossed as metal concentration increase, each causing a substantial change in microbial diversity. Preliminary data obtained in this study suggest that the denitrifying microbial community adapts to elevated levels of Pb by selecting for metal-resistant forms of nitrite reductases.

Rhizobacteria were isolated from seedlings of seven economically important weeds and characterized for potential phytopathogenicity, effects on seedling growth, and antibiosis to assess the possibility of developing deleterious rhizobacteria as biological control agents. The abundance and composition of rhizobacteria varied among the different weed species. For example, fluorescent pseudomonads represented from 11 to 42% of the total rhizobacterial populations from jimsonweed and lambsquarters, respectively. Other bacteria frequently isolated were nonfluorescent pseudomonads, Erwinia herbicola, Alcaligenes spp., and Flavobacterium spp. Only 18% of all isolates were potentially phytopathogenic, based on an Escherichia coli indicator bioassay. However, the proportion of isolates that inhibited growth in seedling assays ranged from 35 to 65% depending on the weed host. Antibiosis was most prevalent among isolates of fluorescent Pseudomonas spp., the activity of which was due to siderophore production in over 75% of these isolates. Overall, rhizobacterial isolates exhibited a complex array of properties that were inconsistent with accepted definitions for plant growth-promoting and deleterious rhizobacteria. It is suggested that for development of effective biological control agents for weed control, deleterious rhizobacteria must be screened directly on host seedlings and must possess several properties including high colonizing ability, specific phytotoxin production, and resistance or tolerance to antibiotics produced by other rhizosphere microorganisms, and they must either synthesize or utilize other bacterial siderophores.

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