论文题目:Synthetic community derived from the root core microbes of a desert shrub Caragana korshinskii enhances wheat drought tolerance
论文作者:Xinwei Hao, Xiao Wang, Xiangdong Wang, Congcong Wang, Chen Li, Yueheng Lu, Qi Cheng,Zhe Chen, Lingfang Zhu, Changfu Li and Xihui Shen
论文摘要：
Background: Drought, intensified by climate change, poses a mounting threat to global food security by severely constraining crop productivity. While microbial inoculants offer promise for drought tolerance, their poor adaptability remains insufficient for extremely water-deficient environments. Desert plants host unique drought-adapted microbiomes that remain largely unexplored for agricultural applications.
Results: Here, we investigated the microbial community of the desert shrub Caragana korshinskii and identified a core set of drought-responsive strains. A synthetic microbial community (SynCom) derived from these strains significantly improved wheat growth under drought stress. Metagenomic analyses revealed that microbial functions related to biofilm formation, quorum sensing, and carbon metabolism were enriched, with Pseudomonas identified as a key functional taxon. Guided by inter-strain interactions in biofilm assembly, we streamlined the consortium into a five-member synthetic community, where quorum-sensing signals promoted community-wide biofilm formation. Community biofilm production improved strain colonization and conferred greater drought tolerance compared tomonocultures. In plants, mechanistic investigations indicated that the simplified SynCom inoculation universally upregulated MAPK and jasmonic acid signaling pathways. Furthermore, carbohydrate metabolic pathways such as starch and sucrose metabolism were specifically activated, suggesting a multi-level mechanism underlying SynCom-mediated drought tolerance.
Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that SynCom constructed on the endophytic flora of desert plants can significantly enhance crop drought tolerance. Our work highlights the pivotal role of community biofilm synthesis in facilitating root colonization and activating a multidimensional drought tolerance network in plants. This study not only gives an ecological perspective on desert microbiome adaptations but also offers a strategic framework for developing effective microbial inoculants for arid-region agriculture.
研究背景：气候变化加剧的干旱严重制约作物产量，对全球粮食安全构成日益严峻的威胁。尽管微生物菌剂在提升植物抗旱性方面展现出潜力，但其环境适应性差，难以满足极端缺水条件下的应用需求。荒漠植物携带独特的抗旱微生物组，这类微生物资源在农业生产中仍未得到充分挖掘与利用。
研究结果：本研究对荒漠灌木柠条锦鸡儿（Caragana korshinskii）的微生物群落进行解析，鉴定出一组核心抗旱菌株。基于这些菌株构建的人工合成微生物群落（SynCom）可显著提高小麦在干旱胁迫下的生长表现。宏基因组分析表明，与生物膜形成、群体感应和碳代谢相关的微生物功能显著富集，其中假单胞菌属（Pseudomonas）为关键功能类群。以生物膜组装过程中的菌株互作为指导，我们将菌群精简为包含5个成员的合成群落，群体感应信号可促进整个群落的生物膜形成。与单一菌株接种相比，合成群落形成的生物膜显著提升了菌株定殖能力，并赋予植物更强的抗旱性。机制研究显示，接种该简化合成群落可普遍上调植物体内MAPK与茉莉酸信号通路；同时，淀粉与蔗糖代谢等碳水化合物代谢途径被特异性激活，表明合成群落通过多层次机制介导植物抗旱。
研究结论：上述结果表明，基于荒漠植物内生菌群构建的合成微生物群落（SynCom）可显著增强作物抗旱性。本研究揭示了群落生物膜合成在促进根系定殖、激活植物多维抗旱网络中的关键作用，不仅从生态学角度解析了荒漠微生物组的适应机制，也为研发适用干旱区农业的高效微生物菌剂提供了策略框架。
论文链接：https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40168-026-02350-8