Prevalence and Correlates of Phenazine Resistance in Culturable Bacteria from a Dryland Wheat Field
Elena K. Perry, Dianne K. Newman
Abstract
Microbial communities contribute to crop health in important ways. For example, phenazine metabolites are a class of redox-active molecules made by diverse soil bacteria that underpin the biocontrol of diseases of wheat and other crops. Their physiological functions are nuanced. In some contexts, they are toxic. In others, they are beneficial. While much is known about phenazine production and the effect of phenazines on producing strains, our ability to predict how phenazines might shape the composition of environmental microbial communities is poorly constrained. In addition, phenazine prevalence in the rhizosphere has been predicted to increase in arid soils as the climate changes, providing an impetus for further study. As a step toward gaining a predictive understanding of phenazine-linked microbial ecology, we document the effects of phenazines on diverse bacteria that were coisolated from a wheat rhizosphere and identify conditions and phenotypes that correlate with how a strain will respond to phenazines.