ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Symbiotic Interactions
This article is part of the Research TopicField Applications of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria for Crop Protection and Nutrient EnhancementView all articles
Metarhizium anisopliae reshapes the citrus rhizosphere microbiome to enhance fruit quality via nutrient cycling
Provisionally accepted
- Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
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The rhizosphere microbiome is a critical regulator of nutrient acquisition and plant growth in citrus. Here, we evaluated the effects of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae CQMa421 on soil nutrient status, rhizosphere bacterial community structure, and fruit quality in citrus using soil physicochemical assays, plant physiological measurements, and 16S rRNA amplicon high-throughput sequencing. CQMa421 application markedly reshaped soil properties, increasing available potassium by 128.50% and organic matter by 75.05%. In addition, total nitrogen, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, and available phosphorus increased by 112.68%, 155.30%, 305.74% respectively, while soil pH decreased by 0.4 units. CQMa421 treatment significantly increased leaf total nitrogen content and elevated fruit vitamin C by 12.00%. Microbial community profiling showed an enrichment of putatively beneficial taxa, including Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, in treated soils. Functional prediction suggested enhanced nutrient cycling potential, with increased representation of genes associated with carbohydrate metabolism and inorganic ion transport. Collectively, these results indicate that M. anisopliae CQMa421 acts as as a plant growth-promoting fungus by enhancing soil nutrient availability and restructuring the rhizosphere microbiome, thereby improving the overall nutrient status of the soil and enhancing citrus fruit quality.
Keywords: Citrus, fruit quality, Metarhizium anisopliae, Nutrient Utilization, soil microbiome
Received: 09 Jan 2026; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Han, Luo, Peng, Tan, Liu and Cao. 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: Yueqing Cao
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