Synthetic Community Driven by a Keystone Rhizosphere Bacterium Suppresses Whitefly-Mediated Begomovirus Transmission via the Jasmonate Signaling Pathway in Tomato.

An eight-strain tomato rhizosphere SynCom identifies Beauveria bassiana-legacy–selected strain N2 as a keystone that suppresses TYLCV transmission, with OptSynM reducing virus accumulation.

• Why it matters: Tomato crops face compounded damage from whiteflies and whitefly-transmitted TYLCV, yet rational design and mechanism of synthetic rhizosphere communities for this insect–virus complex are unclear.
• What they did: Using multi-omics, soil incubation, and root exudate chemotaxis assays, the study built an eight-strain SynCom, used one-strain knockouts to confirm N2, then optimized to OptSynM with N2 plus four helper strains.
• The result: OptSynM reduced whitefly fitness and suppressed TYLCV accumulation in tomato, enhanced N2 rhizosphere colonization via growth and biofilm formation, and activated systemic immunity through the jasmonic acid signaling pathway, maintaining efficacy in pot trials with natural agricultural soil.

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