Our objectives were to (1) monitor the proliferation of the biocontrol agent (BCA) Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. strigae strain “Foxy-2”, an effective soil-borne BCA against the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica, in the rhizosphere of maize under different agro-ecologies, and (2) investigate its impact on indigenous rhizosphere fungal community abundance and composition. Field experiments were conducted in Busia and Homa Bay districts in western Kenya during two cropping seasons to account for effects of soil type, climate, growth stage and seasonality. Maize seeds were coated with or without “Foxy-2” and soils were artificially infested with S. hermonthica seeds. One treatment with nitrogen rich organic residues (Tithonia diversifolia) was established to compensate hypothesized resource competition between “Foxy-2” and the indigenous fungal community. Rhizosphere soil samples collected at three growth stages (i.e., EC30, EC60, EC90) of maize were subjected to abundance measurement of “Foxy-2” and total indigenous fungi using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis was used to assess potential alterations in the fungal community composition in response to “Foxy-2” presence. “Foxy-2” proliferated stronger in the soils with a sandy clay texture (Busia) than in those with a loamy sand texture (Homa Bay) and revealed slightly higher abundance in the second season. “Foxy-2” had, however, only a transient suppressive effect on total indigenous fungal abundance which ceased in the second season and was further markedly compensated after addition of T. diversifolia residues. Likewise, community structure of the indigenous fungal community was mainly altered by maize growth stages, but not by “Foxy-2”. In conclusion, no adverse effects of “Foxy-2” inoculation on indigenous fungal rhizosphere communities were observed corroborating the safety of this BCA under the given agro-ecologies.

我们的目标是（1）监测生防霉（Fusarium oxysporum f ）的生物控制剂（BCA）的增殖。sp。在不同的农业生态环境下，玉米根际中的杂种菌株“ Foxy-2”是一种有效的土源BCA，可抵抗寄生杂草Striga hermonthica，并且（2）研究其对本土根际真菌群落丰度和组成的影响。在两个种植季节期间，在肯尼亚西部的布希亚和霍马湾地区进行了田间试验，以说明土壤类型，气候，生长阶段和季节的影响。将玉米种子涂上或不涂“ Foxy-2”，并用土壤链球菌种子人工感染土壤。一种用富氮有机残留物处理（满天花（Ththonia diversifolia））的成立是为了补偿“ Foxy-2”与土著真菌群落之间的假定资源竞争。使用定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）分析对玉米三个生长期（即EC30，EC60，EC90）收集的根际土壤样品进行“ Foxy-2”和全部原生真菌的丰度测量。末端限制性片段长度多态性（TRFLP）分析用于评估响应“ Foxy-2”的存在在真菌群落组成中的潜在变化。“ Foxy-2”在具有砂质粘土质地（Busia）的土壤中的繁殖力强于具有壤质砂质质地（霍马湾）的土壤，并且在第二季中的丰度略高。但是，“ Foxy-2”具有T. diversifolia残留。同样，土著真菌群落的群落结构主要受到玉米生长阶段的影响，但没有受到“ Foxy-2”的影响。总之，在给定的农业生态条件下，未观察到“ Foxy-2”接种对本地真菌根际群落的不利影响，从而证实了这种BCA的安全性。