Inoculation with phosphate‐solubilizing bacteria alters microbial community and activates soil phosphorus supply to promote maize growth

Abstract Phosphorus (P) is one of the essential macronutrients for plants, but agricultural soil generally lacks available P. This study aims to ascertain the impact of phosphate‐solubilizing bacterial inoculation on the development of maize, soil characteristics, P fractions, and the microbial population in the soil. In this experiment, we explored the P solubilizing ability of P‐solubilizing bacteria through liquid culture. In a maize pot experiment, soil P fractions and maize growth were examined, and a metagenomic sequence was constructed to analyze the soil microbial community and gene abundances and to link their relationship. In the shaking flask culture experiment, it was found that the Burkholderia (XQP35) and Raoultella (SQP80) have a strong capability for calcium phosphate and calcium phytate. Compared with the blank control, the XQP35 and SQP80 treatments could improve maize biomass and the soil nutrient status. Moreover, SQP80 treatments increased the soil acid phosphatase activity. SQP80 inoculation dramatically decreased the variety of the soil microbial community and the abundance of Acidobacteria . We found that the different treatments had no significant effect on the number of genes but that the SQP80 treatments significantly increased the P‐cycling pathway gene family phoA and phoD compared with the CK treatment. Our results demonstrated that inoculation with XQP35 and SQP80 could dissolve varieties of insoluble P and, together with functional pathways of P‐cycling, promote the transformation of P fractions and ultimately increase soil available P content to promote the development of maize.