Corn recruits helpful soil bacteria to survive salty ground
Zhao Y, Wen X
Soil Health
If you've ever watered a garden bed near a driveway that gets road salt runoff, this is the same stress crops face, and it turns out roots can fight back by teaming up with the right soil microbes.
Scientists found that when maize (corn) plants are stressed by salty soil, they release more of an amino acid called arginine from their roots. That chemical signal attracts a helpful bacterium, Pseudomonas, which then flips on a gene that makes the plant's root walls thicker and tougher. Thicker roots let in less salt, so the plant handles salty soil much better, a discovery that could lead to new ways of coating seeds or treating soil to protect crops.
Key Findings
Salt stress causes maize roots to accumulate arginine in the rhizosphere, which selectively enriches Pseudomonas bacteria in both rhizosphere and root tissue.
Pseudomonas colonization activates a NAC-family transcription factor gene that drives lignin biosynthesis and thickens root cell walls.
The thickened cell walls reduce sodium (Na+) influx into roots, directly alleviating salt stress in maize.
chevron_right Technical Summary
When soil turns salty, maize plants release an amino acid that calls in helpful soil bacteria, which then trigger the plant to thicken its root walls and keep salt out. This microbe-assisted trick could help breed or engineer more salt-tolerant crops as farmland salinization spreads worldwide.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Rhizosphere arginine accumulation recruits Pseudomonas for maize salt tolerance via a lignin pathway modulated by a NAC-family gene.
Soil salinization severely threatens global food security by reducing agricultural productivity. While root-associated microbiota are known to enhance plant adaptation to environmental stress, the ...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Species Mentioned
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Gene editing removes 97% of celiac-triggering proteins from bread wheat
It could mean that people with celiac disease — roughly 1 in 100 worldwide — may one day safely eat bread made from real wheat, without sacrificing the taste...
Maize, also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. The leafy stalk of the plant gives rise to male inflorescences or tassels which produce pollen, and female inflorescences called ears. The ears yield grain, known as kernels or seeds. In modern ...