A simple two‐term infiltration equation was used to determine soil sorptivity and hydraulic conductivity from cumulative infiltration data from the disk infiltrometer. Parameters of the equation were obtained by fitting the equation to cumulative infiltration data. The parameters of the first and second terms in the equation were related to soil sorptivity and hydraulic conductivity, respectively. By using the twoterm infiltration equation, sorptivity and hydraulic conductivity were estimated for various soils, radii and tensions of the disk infiltrometer, and initial infiltration conditions. Sorptivity and hydraulic conductivity values calculated using the method and simulated cumulative infiltration data resulted in excellent agreement with the theoretical results. The relative error of estimation of sorptivity and hydraulic conductivity was within 5% for most cases. The method can be used to determine the soil hydraulic properties from infiltrometer infiltration for a wide range of soils, having a retention function of the type of either van Genuchten, Russo, or Zhang and van Genuchten.

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Background Plant microbiome highlights the importance of endosphere microbiome for growth and health of the host plant. Microbial community analysis represents an elegant way to identify keystone microbial species that have a more central position in the community. The aim of this study was to access the interactions between the keystone bacterial species and plants during banana Fusarium wilt process, by comparing the endophytic bacterial and fungal community in banana roots and shoot tips during growth and wilting processes. The keystone bacterial species were isolated and further engineered to improve banana wilt resistance. Results Banana endosphere microbiome structure varied during plant growth and wilting processes. Bacterial and fungal diversity in the shoot tips and roots increased with the development of the banana plantlets. The bacterial groups belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family with different relative abundances were detected in all the samples. The Klebsiella spp. might be the keystone bacteria during the growth of banana plantlets. The relative abundance of Fusarium associated with the wilt disease did not increase during the wilting process. The endophytic Enterobacteriaceae strains Enterobacter sp. E5, Kosakonia sp. S1, and Klebsiella sp. Kb were isolated on Enterobacteriaceae selective medium and further engineered by expressing 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase on the bacterial cell walls (designated as E5P, S1P, and KbP, respectively). Pot experiments suggested that plants inoculated with strains E5, E5P, S1, and S1P increased resistance to the Fusarium wilt disease compared with the controls without inoculation, whereas the Klebsiella inoculation (Kb and KbP) did not increase the wilt resistance. Compared with the inoculation with the wild strains E5 and S1, the inoculation with engineered strains E5P and S1P significantly increased wilt resistance and promoted plant growth, respectively. The results illustrated that the keystone species in the banana microbiome may not be dominant in numbers and the functional role of keystone species should be involved in the wilt resistance. Conclusion The ACC deaminase activity of engineered bacteria was essential to the Fusarium wilt resistance and growth promotion of banana plants. Engineering keystone bacteria in plant microbiome with ACC deaminase on the cell walls should be a promising method to improve plant growth and disease resistance. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40168-019-0690-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users....

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By combining the microbial electrolysis cell and the microbial desalination cell, the microbial electrolysis desalination cell (MEDC) becomes a novel device to desalinate salty water. However, several factors, such as sharp pH decrease and Cl(-) accumulation in the anode chamber, limit the MEDC development. In this study, a microbial electrolysis desalination and chemical-production cell (MEDCC) was developed with four chambers using a bipolar membrane. Results showed that the pH in the anode chamber of the MEDCC always remained near 7.0, which greatly enhanced the microbial activities in the cell. With applied voltages of 0.3-1.0 V, 62%-97% of Coulombic efficiencies were achieved from the MEDCC, which were 1.5-2.0 times of those from the MEDC. With 10 mL of 10 g/L NaCl in the desalination chamber, desalination rates of the MEDCC reached 46%-86% within 18 h. Another unique feature of the MEDCC was the simultaneous production of HCl and NaOH in the cell. With 1.0 V applied voltage, the pH values at 18 h in the acid-production chamber and cathode chamber were 0.68 and 12.9, respectively. With the MEDCC, the problem with large pH changes in the anode chamber was resolved, and products of the acid and alkali were obtained.

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