Colonization of a beneficial bacterial synthetic community in soil and its impact on wheat performance

In this study, we constructed a bacterial synthetic community (SynCom) using seven plant-growth promoting bacteria isolated from the wheat rhizosphere, including Bacillus spp., Enterobacter spp., and Xanthomonas sp., which showed multiple plant growth promoting traits including indoleacetic acid and ammonium production, and fungal pathogen suppression. We inoculated the bacterial SynCom in a microbial diversity reduced black Vertosol (by autoclavation) and investigated the bacterial colonization in soil and their interactions with soil microbes as well as wheat plants under challenges by a soil-borne pathogen, Fusarium pseudograminerum (Fp), for three weeks.