Highly diverse communities of bacteria inhabiting soybean rhizospheres play pivotal roles in plant growth and crop production; however, little is known about the changes that occur in these communities during growth. We used both culture-dependent physiological profiling and culture independent DNA-based approaches to characterize the bacterial communities of the soybean rhizosphere during grow...

Natural transformation is assumed to be the most likely mechanism by which DNA from transgenic plants could be horizontally transferred to bacteria. In order to determine the occurrence of naturally transformable bacteria amongst bulk and rhizosphere soil bacteria, different transformation strategies were employed using either plasmid DNA (IncQ plasmids pSM1890 and pSM1885, conferring GFP, Sm(r...

Natural transformation is assumed to be the most likely mechanism by which DNA from transgenic plants could be horizontally transferred to bacteria. In order to determine the occurrence of naturally transformable bacteria amongst bulk and rhizosphere soil bacteria, different transformation strategies were employed using either plasmid DNA (IncQ plasmids pSM1890 and pSM1885, conferring GFP, Smr,...

The rhizosphere represents the thin layer of soil surrounding plant roots and the soil occupied by the roots, supports large active groups of microorganisms. The vast organic compounds (amino acids, sugars etc.) secreted by plant roots in the rhizosphere provide a food source for microorganisms increasing microbial biomass and their activity in the rhizosphere. Antibiotics are antimicrobial com...

The rhizosphere is a hotbed of microbial activity in ecosystems, fueled by carbon compounds from plant roots. Basic questions about the location and dynamics of plant-spurred microbial growth in the rhizosphere are difficult to answer with standard, destructive soil assays mixing a multitude of microbe-scale microenvironments in a single, often sieved, sample. Soil microbial biosensors designed...

ABSTRACT Strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens producing the antibiotic 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (2,4-DAPG) are biocontrol agents which play a key role in the suppressiveness of some soils against soilborne pathogens. We evaluated the effect of the host plant genotype on rhizosphere colonization by both indigenous and introduced 2,4-DAPG-producing P. fluorescens. First, population densities of i...

Root exudation contributes to soil carbon allocation and also to microbial C and energy supply, which subsequently impacts soil aggregation around roots. Biologically-driven soil structural formation is an important driver of soil fertility. Plant genetic determinants of exudation and more generally of factors promoting rhizosphere soil aggregation are largely unknown. Here, we characterized rh...

A growth chamber pot experiment and a field plot experiment were conducted with the installation of rhizobags to study the effects of repeated phytoextraction by Sedum plumbizincicola on the bioavailability of Cd and Zn in the rhizosphere and bulk soil Repeated phytoextraction gave significantly lower Cd and Zn concentrations in both rhizosphere and bulk soil solutions compared with soil withou...

Rhizosphere, the interface between soil and plant roots, is a chemically complex environment which supports the development and growth of diverse microbial communities. The composition of the rhizosphere microbiome is dynamic and controlled by multiple biotic and abiotic factors that include environmental parameters, physiochemical properties of the soil, biological activities of the plants and...

A culture-independent survey was performed to search for 16S rRNA gene sequences representing dominant and metabolically active bacteria in rhizosphere soil. PCR- and reverse transcription-PCR-derived clone libraries were constructed from DNA and RNA directly extracted from the soil sample. Acidobacteria-related sequences occupied an unusually large proportion (>50%) of both rDNA- and rRNA-deri...