ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbe and Virus Interactions with Plants
Mixed application of microbial fertilizers reshapes the tobacco rhizosphere microbiome and enhances metabolic coordination to improve crop quality
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xichang College, Xichang, China
- 2Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, China
- 3China Tobacco Sichuan Industrial Co Ltd, Chengdu, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Sustainable management of flue-cured tobacco requires balancing productivity, chemical composition, and soil ecological function, which are often disrupted by excessive chemical fertilization. This study aimed to elucidate how microbial fertilization influences plant performance, chemical coordination, and rhizosphere microbial structure under field conditions. A two-year factorial field experiment was conducted in Sichuan, China, using a Bacillus-based inoculant (PGPM) and a commercial microbial consortium (Xi·Weifeng), applied individually or in combination at gradient doses. Agronomic traits, cured-leaf chemistry, secondary metabolites, and rhizosphere bacterial communities were comprehensively analyzed through multivariate statistics, network correlations, and structural equation modeling (SEM). Moderate PGPM application (27 kg ha⁻¹) significantly increased plant height (+8.6%), internode length (+15.3%), and leaf width (+7.8%) during the vigorous growth stage. Co-application further enhanced leaf expansion (+9.7%) and improved chemical coordination, maintaining optimal sugar/nicotine (8-12) and N/nicotine (0.7-1.0) ratios. Chlorogenic acid (18.8 mg g⁻¹) and neochlorogenic acid (2.7 mg g⁻¹) were markedly elevated under A27B54. Rhizosphere diversity peaked under co-application, with Bacillus, Rhizobiales, and Sphingomonas emerging as key taxa positively associated with both metabolic and agronomic improvements. SEM revealed that fertilization effects on leaf quality were mediated indirectly through microbial community restructuring and metabolite modulation. Microbial fertilizer co-application enhances tobacco performance by promoting rhizosphere microbial diversity and functional coordination, which in turn improves metabolic balance and nutrient-use efficiency. These findings highlight a soil microbiome-mediated pathway linking fertilization strategy to crop physiological and chemical responses, offering mechanistic insights for sustainable fertilization management.
Keywords: Flue-cured tobacco, Microbial fertilization, Rhizosphere microbiome, secondarymetabolism, Chemical coordination
Received: 16 Oct 2025; Accepted: 29 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lai, Hou, Liu, Zhang, Peng, Yang, Yan and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xianjun Lai
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.