ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbe and Virus Interactions with Plants
This article is part of the Research TopicPlant Mineral Microbe Interactions, Vol IIView all 15 articles
A novel internal reference microorganism-based method reveals wild-enriched Penicillium for enhancing growth and disease resistance in Fritillaria thunbergii
Provisionally accepted
- 1Zhejiang Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine Co., Ltd., Hangzhou, China
- 2State Key Laboratory for Quality Ensurance and Sustainable Use of Dao-di Herbs, Beijing, China
- 3Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Resources Protection and Innovation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, hangzhou, China
- 4Zhejiang Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine Co., Ltd., hanghzou, China
- 5Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Resources Protection and Innovation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, hanghzou, China
- 6Zhejiang Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine Co., Ltd, hangzhou, China
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Fritillaria thunbergii Miq. is an important traditional Chinese medicinal herb, but bulb rot disease causes severe losses during its cultivation. Screening and reintroducing beneficial microorganisms from the wild rhizosphere is an effective strategy to increase disease resistance in cultivated plants. However, the absolute quantitative characteristics of microorganisms cannot be reflected by traditional methods based on relative abundance analysis due to compositional bias. In this study, we identified Clavatospora as a host-specific internal reference microorganism (IRM) and established an IRM-based relative abundance differential microorganism analysis (IRMRA-DMA) method. Application of this method revealed that wild F. thunbergii possesses greater potential than cultivated plants for mining beneficial rhizosphere microorganisms. Specifically, Penicillium was identified as a key wild-enriched genus. Subsequently, two strains, Penicillium korosum and Penicillium aculeatum, were isolated from the rhizosphere of wild F. thunbergii. Functional tests confirmed that these strains demonstrated dual functions in disease suppression and plant growth promotion by solubilizing phosphate, producing siderophores, antagonizing pathogens, and upregulating defense-related genes.
Keywords: biological control, Fritillaria thunbergii Miq., Internal reference microorganism, Microbiome Rewilding, Penicillium sp., Plantdomestication, Rhizosphere microbiome
Received: 15 Nov 2025; Accepted: 20 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Cai, Sun, Li, Wang, Zhang, Shao 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: Jian Sun
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