ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Sustainable and Intelligent Phytoprotection
This article is part of the Research TopicMolecular and Physiological Mechanisms Driving PhytoremediationView all 4 articles
Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria (PGPB) Inoculants Enhance the Bacterial Network Connectivity More Than Non-PGPB In Heavy Metal-Contaminated Soil
Provisionally accepted
- 1Nanchang University School of Life Sciences, Nanchang, China
- 2Nanchang University Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Environment and Resource Utilization Ministry of Education, Nanchang, China
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Optimizing the performance of plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) inoculants in phytoremediation requires a deeper understanding of their interactions with the indigenous soil microbiome. However, current knowledge is particularly limited regarding how PGPB versus non-PGPB inoculants interact with indigenous microbes and establish colonization persistence in the rhizosphere. In this study, we employed amplicon sequencing to compare the impacts of PGPB versus non-PGPB inoculants on the indigenous rhizosphere and bulk soil microbiome of Indian mustard in heavy metal-contaminated soil, and their interactions within the indigenous bacterial networks. Our results showed that both PGPB and non-PGPB inoculants significantly altered the composition and diversity of the rhizosphere microbiome. However, only PGPB inoculants enhanced the complexity and stability of bacterial co-occurrence networks. PGPB inoculants not only maintained rhizosphere persistence but also actively integrated into the network, enhancing associations with indigenous bacterial taxa. Notably, they established enhanced co-occurrence associations with native bacterial taxa characterized as potential PGPB, including Lysinimonas, Sinomonas, Nocardioides, Actinoalloteichus, Amycolatopsis, Bradyrhizobium, Novosphingobium etc., and these interactions were predominantly positive. These findings highlight the important role of PGPB versus non-PGPB inoculants in reshaping the rhizosphere microbiome under heavy metal stress, indicating a potential approach for improving phytoremediation efficiency by fostering a more resilient and cooperative soil microbiome.
Keywords: Microbial inoculant, Indigenous microbial community, Co-occurrence network, Rhizosphere colonization, Phytoremediation
Received: 03 Oct 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kong, He, Xue, Chen, Gui, Wu and Chen. 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: Zhaoyu Kong, kongzhaoyu@hotmail.com
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