Effects of inoculation with plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria from the Brazilian Amazon on the bacterial community associated with maize in field

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of the inoculation with the plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria Bacillus thuringiensis RZ2MS9 and Burkholderia ambifaria RZ2MS16, both from the Brazilian Amazon, on the bacterial community of the rhizobiome and leaves of maize grown in field. For comparison, we analysed the effects of inoculating Azospirillum brasilense Ab-V5, a strain that is commercialized as inoculant for maize, as well as the combinations RZ2MS16 + Ab-V5 and RZ2MS9 + Ab-V5. The treatment RZ2MS9 + Ab-V5 yielded the highest plant height and stalk diameter, which were significantly different from the non-inoculated control (p < 0.05). The core microbiome of maize was mainly composed of the bacterial classes Gammaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Cytophagia, and Bacilli. Overall, the inoculation process had no effect either on the composition of the maize-associated bacterial community or on the total bacterial biomass. However, we detected significant differences in the richness and in the community structure among the plant niches analysed. Linear discriminant analysis identified that the class Actinobacteria, and the order Actinomycetales were enriched in leaf and root of plants treated with RZ2MS16 + Ab-V5 and in rhizosphere of plants treated with RZ2MS9 + Ab-V5. Functional analysis of the soil samples revealed significant differences in the abundance of predicted genes encoding proteins related to respiration and solubilization of Cu, Mg, and K among treatments. Furthermore, the NMDS ordination showed association between different functional gene categories and some plant traits. Our findings contribute to understanding the efficacy of microbial inoculants for maize in field conditions.