Root rot suppression by synthetic microbiota is associated with rhizosphere bacterial shifts and amino acid metabolism.

Two defined three-member synthetic microbial communities (SCI and SCII) alleviate Fusarium oxysporum root rot in Codonopsis pilosula, with SCI achieving 57.8% biocontrol efficacy and stronger overall performance.

• Why it matters: Root rot by F. oxysporum severely constrains C. pilosula production, and the study addresses how engineered rhizosphere microbiota can suppress disease while reshaping plant recovery pathways.
• What they did: Indigenous culturable bacteria were screened for antifungal activity, plant growth-promoting traits, and compatibility, then SCI/SCII were built; rhizosphere bacterial profiling was integrated with rhizosphere metabolite profiling and root tissue metabolomics.
• The result: SynCom treatment was linked to limited overall diversity changes but taxon-specific rhizosphere shifts, with root pathway-enrichment shifting toward amino acid-related metabolism and coordinated variation in medicinally relevant metabolite features.