Rhizosphere Bacterial Community Structure and Functional Characteristics Associated with Fusarium Wilt Resistance in...

The rhizosphere bacterial community is an important determinant of plant health and disease resistance. To investigate bacterial community characteristics associated with Fusarium wilt resistance, we used full-length 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to characterize rhizosphere bacterial communities. The analysis included seven banana germplasms with contrasting resistance levels. Significant genotype-dependent differences in bacterial community composition were detected among the germplasms. Alpha diversity analysis showed that bacterial richness and diversity were not consistently associated with Fusarium wilt resistance. In contrast, highly resistant germplasms were enriched in potentially beneficial taxa, including Bacillus and Nitrospira, whereas Chujaibacter and Acinetobacter were more abundant in moderately resistant and low-resistant germplasms. Beta diversity analysis further revealed distinct community structures across the germplasms. Functional prediction indicated that bacterial communities associated with highly resistant germplasms possessed greater potential for carbohydrate metabolism, secondary metabolite biosynthesis, and antibiotic biosynthesis. Co-occurrence network analysis revealed distinct bacterial interaction patterns among germplasms with different resistance levels. Highly resistant germplasms showed strong associations among several key bacterial taxa. In contrast, moderately resistant and low-resistant germplasms exhibited different patterns of positive and negative bacterial associations. Collectively, these results suggest that Fusarium wilt resistance in banana is associated not with increased bacterial diversity but with the enrichment of potentially beneficial bacterial taxa, enhanced bacterial functional potential, and distinct bacterial interaction patterns.