Compost from urban biowaste shapes the bacterial community and its functional traits in the rhizosphere of tomato plants

Biowaste industrial compost from food and plant matter increases rhizosphere bacterial diversity in tomato plants, producing a distinct community enriched in Firmicutes.

• Why it matters: The microbiota of industrial biowaste compost is only partly characterized, and its effects on soil and rhizosphere bacterial communities and their functions in crop roots remain unclear.
• What they did: Tomato plants were fertilized with biowaste compost versus conventional chemical fertilizer, and bacterial community structure and predicted metabolic pathways were analyzed alongside source contribution tracking.
• The result: Compost-derived taxa significantly contributed to soil, rhizosphere, and roots, and the rhizosphere showed higher predicted pathways for cellulolytic and xylanolytic enzymes, nitrogenase, phytase, and 1-ACC deaminase.

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