Bacterial-fungal interactions under agricultural settings: from physical to chemical interactions

Abstract

Bacteria and fungi are dominant members of environmental microbiomes. Various bacterial-fungal interactions (BFIs) and their mutual regulation are important factors for ecosystem functioning and health. Such interactions can be highly dynamic, and often require spatiotemporally resolved assessments to understand the interplay which ranges from antagonism to mutualism. Many of these interactions are still poorly understood, especially in terms of the underlying chemical and molecular interplay, which is crucial for inter-kingdom communication and interference. BFIs are highly relevant under agricultural settings; they can be determinative for crop health. Advancing our knowledge related to mechanisms underpinning the interactions between bacteria and fungi will provide an extended basis for biological control of pests and pathogens in agriculture. Moreover, it will facilitate a better understanding of complex microbial community networks that commonly occur in nature. This will allow us to determine factors that are crucial for community assembly under different environmental conditions and pave the way for constructing synthetic communities for various biotechnological applications. Here, we summarize the current advances in the field of BFIs with an emphasis on agriculture.

Detecting and characterizing new endofungal bacteria in new hosts: Pandoraea sputorum and Mycetohabitans endofungorum in Rhizopus arrhizus

“…More EFBs of Mucoromycota demonstrate significant potential in biosynthesizing secondary metabolites and activating fungal genes related to toxin synthesis and pathogenicity ( Muszewska et al, 2021 ; Cheng et al, 2022 ; Niehs et al, 2022 ; Ghasemi et al, 2023 ). However, the chemical signals involved in these interactions remain poorly understood, posing potential risks to third parties beyond bacteria and host fungi ( Zhou et al, 2022 ).…”

Enhancement of herbicolin A production by integrated fermentation optimization and strain engineering in Pantoea agglomerans ZJU23

“…Biological control by living microorganisms is considered to be a suitable, alternative strategy for the control of plant diseases. Several antagonistic microorganisms were identified as biocontrol agents (BCAs) to combat plant diseases and achieved comparatively good efficiency [11]. Moreover, more than 30 species of microbes have been reported to specifically inhibit the mycelial growth of F. graminearum, or/and provided successful control efficiencies against FHB and mycotoxin reduction under greenhouse and/or field conditions [12][13][14][15].…”

“…Multiple mechanisms are involved in the biocontrol of plant diseases, including direct inhibition of pathogens by antimicrobial substances, competition, lysis and parasitism, or indirect interactions, e.g. induction of plant resistance [11,16]. The most extensive studies on biocontrol mechanisms targeted the suppression of pathogens through antimicrobial substances.…”

“…The most extensive studies on biocontrol mechanisms targeted the suppression of pathogens through antimicrobial substances. For example, bacterial BCAs can secrete lipopeptides, phenazine derivatives, macrolide antibiotics, nitrogenous heterocyclic compounds and other antifungal metabolites to directly inhibit F. graminearum [11,15,17,18]. Among them, amphiphilic compounds, especially lipopeptides, have been extensively investigated [19].…”

RNA-Seq Provides Insights into the Mechanisms Underlying Ilyonectria robusta Responding to Secondary Metabolites of Bacillus methylotrophicus NJ13

“…However, the long-term use of chemical fungicides will lead to serious problems, such as the emergence of pathogenic bacterial resistance, a decline in the control effect, pollution of the environment, and an increase in pesticide residues [ 11 ]. Therefore, it is necessary to explore biological control agents (BCAs) and secondary metabolites (SMs) produced by fungi, bacteria mainly including Bacillus spp., and actinomycetes as effective eco-friendly alternatives to chemical fungicides [ 12 ]. In recent years, Bacillus spp.…”