Interactions between mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhizosphere bacteria during mineral weathering: Budget analysis and bacterial quantification

The impact of ectomycorrhizal fungi or rhizosphere bacteria on tree seedling growth and nutrient uptake is well known. However, few studies have combined those microorganisms in one experiment to clarify their relative contribution and interactions in nutrient acquisition. Here, we monitored the respective contributions of pine roots, two ubiquitous forest ectomycorrhizal fungi Scleroderma citrinum and Laccaria bicolor, and two S. citrinum-mycorrhizosphere bacterial strains of Burkholderia glathei and Collimonas sp., on mineral weathering, nutrient uptake, and plant growth. Pinus sylvestris plants were grown on quartz–biotite substrate and inoculated or not with combinations of mycorrhizal fungi and/or bacterial strains. Magnesium and potassium fluxes were measured and nutrient budgets were calculated. Both ectomycorrhizal fungi significantly increased Mg plant uptake. No significant effects of the two bacterial strains were detected on the K and Mg budgets, but co-inoculating the mycorrhizal fungus S. citrinum and the efficient mineral-weathering B. glathei bacterial strain significantly improved the Mg budget. Similarly, co-inoculating S. citrinum with the Collimonas sp. bacterial strain significantly improved the pine biomass compared to non-inoculated pine plants. In order to better understand this process, we monitored the survival of the inoculated bacterial strains in the quartz–biotite substrate, the pine rhizosphere, and the mycorrhizal niche. The results showed that the two bacterial strains harboured different colonization behaviours both of which depended on the presence of the ectomycorrhizal partner. The populations of the Burkholderia strain were maintained in all these environments with a significantly higher density in the mycorrhizal niche, especially of S. citrinum. In contrast the population of the Collimonas strain reached the detection level except in the treatment inoculated with S. citrinum. These results highlight the need for taking into account the ecology of the microorganisms, and more specifically the fungal–bacterial interactions, when studying mineral weathering and plant nutrition.