A seven-strain teosinte-derived bacterial SynCom tested as a maize biofertilizer under conventional and precision fertilization strategies.
Taxonomy
| Taxon | Ontology ID | Functional Roles | Abundance |
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| Serratia sp. — ontology label: Serratia <enterobacteria> | NCBITaxon:613 · TaxonMech · TraitMech | N/A | |
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| Klebsiella variicola | NCBITaxon:244366 · TaxonMech · TraitMech | N/A | |
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| Bacillus thuringiensis | NCBITaxon:1428 · TaxonMech · TraitMech | N/A | |
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| Pantoea agglomerans | NCBITaxon:549 · TaxonMech · TraitMech | N/A | |
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Ecological Interactions
The graph shows only explicitly linked interaction participants. Community members without an asserted participant link are omitted; membership alone does not imply an interaction.
Four-Stage Maize Biofertilization
The field experiment compared no application, conventional fertilizer and seven-strain biofertilizer, each active treatment delivered manually or by drone. The reported protocol used 50 mL per plant and four application times (0, 25, 55 and 85 days after sowing). Delivery is a manipulated input, not microbial colonization facilitation. The source separately describes about 120 days for yield harvest; those timing descriptions are not silently reconciled here.
The repeated biofertilizer treatment is the manipulated input compared with control and conventional-fertilizer arms in the reported field design. The resulting agronomic differences support a treatment-level effect, not proof that a particular strain, nitrogen-fixation route or within-consortium mutualism mediated it.
The biofertilizer application arms produced distinct soil-community profiles across the sampled season. This treatment-to-profile link does not establish absolute taxon growth, tracking of the introduced strains, or causation by the individual edges of the co-occurrence network.
Evidence
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PMID:40270813 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)"The drone was calibrated to deliver 50 mL of treatment solution per plant "
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PMID:40270813 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)"Applications were carried out at four key growth stages: pre-treatment at 0 days after sowing (DAS), mid-season at 25 DAS, early reproductive stage at 55 DAS, and harvest at 85 DAS "
Biofertilizer-Linked Soil and Yield Response
The study reports higher soil microbial biomass, aggregate stability, plant nutrient uptake, chlorophyll, growth and yield, with lower disease incidence, under biofertilization, especially drone delivery, than its comparison treatments. These are treatment-level outcomes of the reported field experiment, not measurements of nitrogen-fixation flux, phosphate transfer, mutual benefit among seven strains, or a uniquely demonstrated microbial mechanism. The field statistics were not independently reproduced.
Biological Processes:
- growth (GO:0040007 · PathwayMech)
Evidence
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PMID:40270813 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)"Biofertilization treatments, mainly when applied via drone technology, demonstrated the most pronounced positive impacts on soil microbial diversity, nutrient availability, crop yield, and disease resistance "
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PMID:40270813 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)"Biofertilization also enhanced plant nutrient uptake and physiological performance "
Treatment-associated soil microbiome shifts
Soil bacterial and fungal relative-abundance profiles shifted across fertilization treatments and sampling times, including reduced Enterobacteriaceae dominance and increased representation of source-described beneficial genera. The soil community includes indigenous taxa beyond the seven inoculant strains. Relative abundance does not prove absolute population growth, inoculant strain establishment, or uniformly beneficial function of every organism assigned to those genera.
Biological Processes:
- biological process involved in interspecies interaction between organisms (GO:0044419 · PathwayMech)
Evidence
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PMID:40270813 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)"Biofertilization treatments produced the most pronounced shifts, reducing Enterobacteriaceae below 50% while significantly increasing beneficial taxa like Bacillus, Pantoea, and Serratia "
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PMID:40270813 - SUPPORT (IN_VIVO)"Bacterial communities exhibited complementary patterns, with plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria showing significant enrichment in biofertilization treatments "
Statistical Bacillus-centered soil association network
Computational co-occurrence analysis of soil abundance profiles identifies Bacillus as a central taxonomic node and correlated responses among putative functional guilds. Correlation and centrality do not establish mutualism, directed nutrient exchange, nitrogen-fixation activity, pathogen suppression by a particular edge, or experimental keystone necessity. These are soil-community associations, not a resolved interaction network among the seven inoculant strains.
Evidence
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PMID:40270813 - PARTIAL (COMPUTATIONAL)"Network analysis demonstrated that microbial interaction complexity increased across treatments, with Bacillus emerging as a keystone species "
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PMID:40270813 - PARTIAL (COMPUTATIONAL)"Drone-assisted biofertilization fostered particularly intricate microbial networks, enhancing synergistic relationships involved in nutrient cycling and biocontrol "
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PMID:40270813 - SUPPORT (COMPUTATIONAL)"based on correlated changes in abundance throughout the crop cycle"
Knowledge gaps & discussions (1)
KNOWLEDGE_GAP OPEN Which inoculant strains and ecological mechanisms mediate the reported field effects?
The seven-strain formulation and field-treatment contrasts are described, but soil amplicon profiles and correlation networks do not identify strain-resolved establishment or necessary exchange pathways. The record taxonomy is an incomplete broad representation of the seven isolates. Source timing and sample/replicate descriptions also differ; raw-data and design reconciliation are needed for quantitative reanalysis. No extra causal arrow from the statistical network to yield is introduced.
Attaches to: ecological_interactions#Four-Stage Maize Biofertilization, ecological_interactions#Biofertilizer-Linked Soil and Yield Response, ecological_interactions#Treatment-associated soil microbiome shifts, ecological_interactions#Statistical Bacillus-centered soil association network
1 evidence item(s)
based on correlated changes in abundance throughout the crop cycle
Environmental Factors
| Factor | Value | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| defined synthetic community design | Seven bacterial strains from teosinte-associated microbes were formulated as a SynCom. | N/A |
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Growth Media
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