The phosphate-solubilising ability of Penicilium guanacastense and its effects on the growth of Pinus massoniana in phosphate limiting conditions

Abstract

Microbes in soil can degrade insoluble inorganic and organic phosphorus, which are components of the soil phosphorus cycle and play an important role in plant growth. Pinus massoniana is a pioneer tree species used for afforestation in southern China and grows in poor, acidic soil. A shortage of available phosphorus in soil limits the growth of P. massoniana. To alleviate this situation, it is necessary to improve soil fertility. A fungal strain (JP-NJ2) with the ability to solubilize phosphate was isolated from the P. massoniana rhizosphere. The ability of JP-NJ2 to solubilize inorganic and organic phosphorus and promote the growth of P. massoniana was evaluated. It showed that JP-NJ2 could grow in NBRIP inorganic phosphate (AlPO4, FePO4·4H2O, and Ca3[PO4]2) fermentation broths, with the highest phosphorus concentration (1.93 mg/ml) and phosphate-solubilizing rate (43.7%) for AlPO4 and in Monkina organic phosphate fermentation broth with a phosphorus concentration of 0.153 mg/ml. The phosphate-solubilizing capability in inorganic and organic fermentation broths was negatively correlated with pH. JP-NJ2-produced acids at a total concentration of 4.7 g/l, which included gluconic (2.3 g/l), oxalic (1.1 g/l), lactic (0.7 g/l) and malonic (0.5 g/l) acids. It prioritized extracellular acidic phosphatase and combined with phytase to solubilize organic phosphates. The fungal suspension and extracellular metabolites from phosphate-solubilizing fungi promoted the shoot length of P. massoniana seedlings by 97.7% and 59.5%, respectively, while increasing the root crown diameter by 46.8% and 27.7%. JP-NJ2 was identified as Penicillium guanacastense based on its morphology and phylogenetic analyses of five genes/regions (ITS, ben A, cmd, cox1 and tef). This is the first report on P. guanacastense isolated from pine tree rhizosphere soil in China and its high phosphate-solubilizing capability, which promoted the growth of P. massoniana. P. guanacastense JP-NJ2 has potential use as a biological fertilizer in forestry and farming.

The Status of Soil Microbiome as Affected by the Application of Phosphorus Biofertilizer: Fertilizer Enriched with Beneficial Bacterial Strains

“…The plant growth promoting properties of the Penicillium species include the production of antibiotics and plant hormones, protection from salinity and the induction of plant resistance. Penicillium also exhibit phosphate solubilization capabilities [104,105]. The most dominant Penicillium species was P. simplicissimum and it is worth noting that the relative abundance of this fungus increased for the FA60 treatment as compared to the control soil.…”

The Effects of Host Plant Genotype and Environmental Conditions on Fungal Community Composition and Phosphorus Solubilization in Willow Short Rotation Coppice

“…Penicillium bilaiae is even sold by NovoZymes as a bioinoculant enabling soil P mobilization. Levels of plant growth-promoting effects by Penicillium species were associated with increased uptake of P into shoots ( Qiao et al, 2019 ). Although P solubilization ability is common in the genus Penicillium , various species and strains differ in their capacity to mobilize P due to differences in the secretion of organic acids, phosphatases, and phytase or in the operation of other P solubilizing mechanisms.…”

Screening of Phosphate-Solubilizing Fungi From Air and Soil in Yunnan, China: Four Novel Species in Aspergillus, Gongronella, Penicillium, and Talaromyces

“…show a much higher drop in pH in the PVK broth containing TCP and high P solubilization when compared to Penicillium spp. Many previous studies reported PSF mostly from soils, including rhizospheric and non-rhizospheric soil samples from cultivated plants and asymptomatic plant roots ( Nelofer et al, 2015 ; Elias et al, 2016 ; Adhikari and Pandey, 2019 ; Qiao et al, 2019 , Supplementary Table S5 ). To date, PSF from air have not yet been reported.…”

“…PSF in soils, particularly filamentous fungi such as Aspergillus and Penicillium , have been widely investigated ( Elias et al, 2016 ; Li Z. et al, 2016 ), but airborne fungi remain to be explored. In addition, previous identifications of PSF (e.g., Aspergillus , Penicillium , and Talaromyces ) have been based on morphology, nucleotide similarities in MegaBLAST searches of NCBI’s GenBank nucleotide database and/or phylogenetic analysis of ITS sequence data (e.g., Vyas et al, 2007 ; Nelofer et al, 2015 ; Qiao et al, 2019 ).…”