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Analysis of Bacterial Microbiota of Aerated Compost Teas and Effect on Tomato Growth

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Mature composts and their water-based extracts, known as aerated compost teas (ACTs), are biofertilizers that share bioactive effects like soil restoration and plant health promotion, widely used for sustainable agriculture. Bioactive effects of compost and ACTs could be associated with their physicochemical and biological characteristics, like carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio and microbiota structure respectively. In our study, we elaborated ACTs using mature homemade compost, wheat bran, and grass clippings, following the C/N ratio criteria. Irrigation of tomato plantlets with ACT whose C/N ratio was close to the expected C/N ratio for mature compost evidenced plant growth promotion. Exploring the bacterial microbiota of elaborated ACTs and origin compost revealed significant structural differences, including phyla involved in N mineralization and free-living N-fixing bacteria. Therefore, ACTs harbor diverse bacterial microbiota involved in the N cycle, which would enrich plant and soil bacterial communities at the taxonomic and functional levels. Furthermore, ACTs are considered a part of agroecological and circular economy approaches.

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Data Availability

The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. Aerated compost teas 16S rRNA-based-metagenomes data can be retrieved from the NCBI database through BioProject PRJNA842379.

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Acknowledgements

To Martin Escoto-Rodríguez (UASLP) who managed the rehabilitation of lab spaces in Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria UASLP. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on our manuscript.

Funding

This work was funded by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología-Secretaría de Educación Pública (CONACyT-SEP Project 236066). VAHA received a fellowship (#806623) from CONACYT for PhD studies (CVU 1034365).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Soledad de Graciano Sánchez, SLP, México

    Mauro Guadalupe Martínez-Yáñez, Víctor Adrián Hernández-Aranda, Delia Xochil Vega-Manriquez, Gisela Aguilar-Benítez, Ramón Jarquin-Gálvez & José Pablo Lara-Ávila

  2. San Luis Potosí, SLP, México

    Claudia Olivia Silva-Ortega

  3. CONACYT, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí. Coordinación para la Innovación y Aplicación de la Ciencia y la Tecnología (CIACYT), San Luis Potosí, SLP, México

    Moisés Roberto Vallejo-Pérez

  4. Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Ricardo Alcalá-Briseño

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  1. Mauro Guadalupe Martínez-Yáñez
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Contributions

JPLA conceived and designed the study. COSO and MGMY conducted experiments. MGMY, COSO, DXVM, GAB, RJG, MRVP, and JPLA analyzed and interpreted data. VAHA and RAB contributed analytical tools. MGMY, VAHA, RAB, and JPLA wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to José Pablo Lara-Ávila.

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Martínez-Yáñez, M.G., Silva-Ortega, C.O., Hernández-Aranda, V.A. et al. Analysis of Bacterial Microbiota of Aerated Compost Teas and Effect on Tomato Growth. Microb Ecol 86, 959–972 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-022-02156-9

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