Bacillus simplex—A Little Known PGPB with Anti-Fungal Activity—Alters Pea Legume Root Architecture and Nodule Morphology When Coinoculated with Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae

Abstract

Two strains, 30N-5 and 30VD-1, identified as Bacillus simplex and B. subtilis, were isolated from the rhizospheres of two different plants, a Podocarpus and a palm, respectively, growing in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. B. subtilis is a well-known plant-growth promoting bacterial species, but B. simplex is not. B. simplex 30N-5 was initially isolated on a nitrogen-free medium, but no evidence for nitrogen fixation was found. Nevertheless, pea plants inoculated with B. simplex showed a change in root architecture due to the emergence of more lateral roots. When Pisum sativum carrying a DR5::GUSA construct, an indicator for auxin response, was inoculated with either B. simplex 30N-5 or its symbiont Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae 128C53, GUS expression in the roots was increased over the uninoculated controls. Moreover, when pea roots were coinoculated with either B. simplex 30N-5 or B. subtilis 30VD-1 and R. leguminosarum bv. viciae 128C53, the nodules were larger, clustered, and developed more highly branched vascular bundles. Besides producing siderophores and solubilizing phosphate, the two Bacillus spp., especially strain 30VD-1, exhibited anti-fungal activity towards Fusarium. Our data show that combining nodulating, nitrogen-fixing rhizobia with growth-promoting bacteria enhances plant development and strongly supports a coinoculation strategy to improve nitrogen fixation, increase biomass, and establish greater resistance to fungal disease.

Keywords

• anti-fungal activity
• lateral roots
• nodulation
• plant growth-promoting bacteria
• phosphate solubilization
• siderophores