Plant-associated microbiota plays an important role in plant disease resistance. Bacterial wilt resistance of tomato is a function of the quantitative trait of tomato plants; however, the mechanism underlying quantitative resistance is unexplored. In this study, we hypothesized that rhizosphere microbiota affects the resistance of tomato plants against soil-borne bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. This hypothesis was tested using a tomato cultivar grown in a defined soil with various microbiota transplants. The bacterial wilt-resistant Hawaii 7996 tomato cultivar exhibited marked suppression and induction of disease severity after treatment with upland soil-derived and forest soil-derived microbiotas, respectively, whereas the transplants did not affect the disease severity in the susceptible tomato cultivar Moneymaker. The differential resistance of Hawaii 7996 to bacterial wilt was abolished by diluted or heat-killed microbiota transplantation. Microbial community analysis revealed the transplant-specific distinct community structure in the tomato rhizosphere and the significant enrichment of specific microbial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in the rhizosphere of the upland soil microbiota-treated Hawaii 7996. These results suggest that the specific transplanted microbiota alters the bacterial wilt resistance in the resistant cultivar potentially through a priority effect.

与植物相关的微生物群在植物抗病性中起重要作用。番茄的青枯病抵抗力是番茄植物数量性状的函数。但是，尚未发现定量抗药性的机制。在这项研究中，我们假设根际微生物群会影响番茄对由土壤引起的土壤传播细菌枯萎的抗性青枯雷尔氏菌。使用在各种土壤微生物移植的特定土壤中生长的番茄栽培品种测试了该假设。分别以高地土壤来源和森林土壤来源的菌群处理后，细菌抗枯萎病的夏威夷州7996番茄品种表现出显着的抑制和诱导病害严重性，而在易感番茄品种Moneymaker中，移植未影响病害的严重性。稀释或加热杀死的微生物菌群移植消除了Hawaii 7996对细菌枯萎的差异抗性。微生物群落分析揭示了番茄根际中移植特定的独特群落结构，以及经旱地微生物群处理的夏威夷7996根际中特定微生物操作分类单位（OTU）的大量富集。