土壌微生物の「目覚まし時計」を解析する新技術(Novel Technique Reveals Insights into Soil Microbe Alarm Clock)

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2025-11-03 ペンシルベニア州立大学(PennState)

ペンシルベニア州立大学の研究チームは、土壌中で休眠している微生物が「目覚め」て植物根に定着する仕組みを、独自の手法で初めて明らかにした。研究では、活性化した微生物のみを化学的に標識するBONCAT法とフローサイトメトリーを組み合わせ、根周辺から内部までの活性微生物を可視化。結果、根内部では微生物活性が周囲土壌の10倍高く、活性状態が定着の鍵であることが判明した。特に植物が供給する栄養が休眠解除を促す可能性が示唆された。この成果は、作物の根圏環境に適応しやすい有用菌の選抜や、持続的農業を支える新しい微生物資材開発に道を開く。研究は米国農務省NIFAの支援を受けた。

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根圏における土壌微生物の活動は根のコロニー形成の成功を予測する The activity of soil microbial taxa in the rhizosphere predicts the success of root colonization

Jennifer E. Harris, Regina B. Bledsoe, Sohini Guha, Haneen Omari, Sharifa G. Crandall, Liana T. Burghardt, Estelle Couradeau
mSystems  Published:6 August 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00458-25

土壌微生物の「目覚まし時計」を解析する新技術(Novel Technique Reveals Insights into Soil Microbe Alarm Clock)

ABSTRACT

Plant-beneficial microbes have great potential to improve sustainability in agriculture. Still, managing beneficial microbes is challenging because the impact of microbial dormancy on community assembly across the soil, rhizosphere, and endosphere is poorly understood. We address this gap with the first documented use of Biorthogonal Non-Canonical Amino Acid Tagging (BONCAT) to probe active microbes in the soil-to-root gradient. Using nodule-forming legume Trifolium incarnatum, we confirmed that BONCAT is suitable for labeling endospheric microbes with microscopy. Next, we coupled BONCAT to Flow Cytometer Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to probe patterns of microbial activity and the structure of the active microbial community across the soil, rhizosphere, root, and nodule with a native soil microbial community. As expected, we found 10 times higher microbial activity in the endosphere than in the rhizosphere or bulk soil, likely due to increased plant resources. Finally, we revealed that microbial activity in the rhizosphere was significantly associated with successful endosphere colonization, more so than microbial abundance alone. This last finding has implications for the development of microbial inoculants, suggesting colonizing plant roots is linked to a microbe’s ability to overcome dormancy once deployed in the soil.

生物化学工学
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