Fluorescence micrograph of *Brachypodium distachyon* roots colonized by *Pseudomonas synxantha*, highlighting spatially structured growth and phosphorus-dependent quorum sensing in the rhizosphere (Photo – Reinaldo E. Alcalde and Hannah Jeckel)
Researchers at Caltech have discovered that soil bacteria can alter the way they communicate when phosphorus, a critical nutrient for growth, becomes scarce.
By News Desk
The findings offer new insight into how microbes survive in soil environments and interact with plant roots, knowledge that could help scientists better understand soil health and food sustainability in a changing climate.
The study, published June 19 in Current Biology, focused on the soil bacterium Pseudomonas synxantha. Researchers found that under phosphorus-limited conditions, the bacteria activate a communication process known as quorum sensing at much lower population densities than previously thought.
Quorum sensing allows bacteria to coordinate behavior by releasing and detecting signaling molecules. In this study, low phosphorus levels made bacteria more sensitive to these signals, triggering the production of compounds called phenazines even when relatively few cells were present.
Phenazines help bacteria survive by supporting nutrient acquisition and outcompeting neighboring microbes. The findings suggest that environmental conditions can reshape the rules governing bacterial communication, particularly in complex soil ecosystems where nutrients are unevenly distributed.
The research was led by scientists in the laboratory of Dianne Newman, Caltech’s Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor of Biology and Geobiology, with postdoctoral scholar Reinaldo Alcalde serving as first author.
Read the full article on caltech.edu.
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