Contrasting plant growth performance of invasive polyploid and native diploid Prosopis is mediated by the soil bacterial community

Abstract

Background Soil microbial communities affect above-ground plant diversity and community composition by influencing plant growth performance. Several studies have tested the effect of soil bacterial microbiome on growth performance of native and invasive plants, but the influence of specific bacterial isolates has not been investigated. Here, we investigated the effects of soil bacterial exclusion by soil sterilization and by inoculation of Streptomyces rhizobacterial isolates on the growth performance of native and invasive Prosopis congeners. Results Plant growth performance of invasive P. juliflora was significantly reduced when grown in sterilized soils, whereas native P. cineraria showed enhanced growth performance in the sterilized soils. When grown in the soil inoculated with the specific Streptomyces isolate from P. juliflora (PJ1), the growth performance of invasive P. juliflora was significantly enhanced while that of native P. cineraria seedlings was significantly reduced. However, inoculation of P. cineraria and P. juliflora seedlings with Streptomyces isolate from the rhizosphere of native P. cineraria (PC1) had no significant effect on the growth performances either of P. juliflora or P. cineraria. Conclusion Our study reveals that invasive P. juliflora experiences positive feedback from the non-native soil bacterial community, while the native P. cineraria experiences negative feedback from its soil bacterial community. Our results provide fresh experimental evidence for the enemy release hypothesis, and further our understanding of the contrasting growth-promoting effects of differentially recruited microbial species belonging to the same genus (Streptomyces) in the rhizospheres of alien invasive and native plants.

Peribacillus frigoritoleransT7-IITJ, a potential biofertilizer, induces plant growth-promoting genes ofArabidopsis thaliana

“…The observed antagonistic effect of T7-IITJ against the plant pathogens Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum (Fig. S2), along with the detection of antifungal and antimicrobial metabolite-synthesizing gene clusters in T7-IITJ (Table 2) indicate the role of T7-IITJ in inhibiting plant pathogens in the desert rhizospheres (Kaushik et al . 2023).…”

Special issue.: The role of whole genome duplication in evolutionary ecology

“…For example, in this special issue, Gerstner et al (2024) present the framework of microbially-mediated niche differentiation which could allow neopolyploids and progenitor diploids to achieve stable coexistence by interacting with different subsets of microbial species from the community. Although tests of the community-wide effects of polyploidy on the microbiome are rare, they are beginning to emerge (Cheng et al 2018, Wipf and Coleman-Derr 2021, Mehlferber et al 2022, Anneberg et al 2023, Hagen and Mason 2024, Kaushik et al 2023, Anneberg et al 2024. Investigating not only how polyploid ecology is influenced by the surrounding microbial community, but also how the diversity and performance of microbial communities are influenced by the sudden appearance of a neopolyploid population is an important next step that will extend our understanding of the evolutionary ecology of polyploids to biologically relevant settings.…”