Exogenous phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria changed the rhizosphere microbial community indirectly.

Phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) have been widely used as biological fertilizer. However, its impact on the local microbial community has less been known. In this study, a mixture of PSB was inoculated into the tomato growth alone or combined with manure fertilizer. The growth parameter results showed that the combination use of PSB and compost could significantly increase the tomato growth and yield. The use of PSB could significantly increase pH, available phosphorus and several kinds of trace elements both in the rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil. The quantitative PCR and high-throughput sequencing results showed that the inoculated PSB did not become the dominant strains in the rhizosphere. However, the soil bacterial community structure was changed. The relative abundance of several indigenous bacteria, such as Pseudomonas, decreased, while the population of several bacteria, including Bacillus, Anaerolineaceae, Cytophagaceae, and Gemmationadaceae, increased. The redundancy analysis result showed that the soil properties had a great influence on the indigenous microbial community. In conclusion, the inoculated PSB could not colonize in the soil with a single inoculation. The PSB secreted small molecular organic acids to dissolve inorganic phosphorus and changed the soil properties, which changed the rhizosphere microbial community indirectly. © King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2020.