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Review
. 2022 Jun 1;2(1):22.
doi: 10.1007/s44154-022-00046-1.

Bacterial-fungal interactions under agricultural settings: from physical to chemical interactions

Yaqi Zhou  1 , Hongkai Wang  1 , Sunde Xu  1 , Kai Liu  1 , Hao Qi  1 , Mengcen Wang  2 , Xiaoyulong Chen  3 , Gabriele Berg  4   5   6 , Zhonghua Ma  1 , Tomislav Cernava  7 , Yun Chen  8
Affiliations
Review

Bacterial-fungal interactions under agricultural settings: from physical to chemical interactions

Yaqi Zhou et al. Stress Biol. .

Abstract

Bacteria and fungi are dominant members of environmental microbiomes. Various bacterial-fungal interactions (BFIs) and their mutual regulation are important factors for ecosystem functioning and health. Such interactions can be highly dynamic, and often require spatiotemporally resolved assessments to understand the interplay which ranges from antagonism to mutualism. Many of these interactions are still poorly understood, especially in terms of the underlying chemical and molecular interplay, which is crucial for inter-kingdom communication and interference. BFIs are highly relevant under agricultural settings; they can be determinative for crop health. Advancing our knowledge related to mechanisms underpinning the interactions between bacteria and fungi will provide an extended basis for biological control of pests and pathogens in agriculture. Moreover, it will facilitate a better understanding of complex microbial community networks that commonly occur in nature. This will allow us to determine factors that are crucial for community assembly under different environmental conditions and pave the way for constructing synthetic communities for various biotechnological applications. Here, we summarize the current advances in the field of BFIs with an emphasis on agriculture.

Keywords: Bacterial-fungal interactions; Biological control; Secondary metabolites; Synthetic communities.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Modes of bacterial-fungal interactions. Bacteria and fungi interact with each other in various ways and can influence each other’s survival or virulence. The consequences of these interactions can be beneficial or harmful for the involved partners. Generally, these interactions can be divided into physical and chemical interactions. A Physical interactions include bacterial endosymbionts of fungi or attachment to the fungal surface. B Diverse bacteria or fungi produce small molecules (antibiosis, volatile organic compounds, quorum sensing molecule etc.) to affect the partners, including morphology, growth, reproduction, transport/movement, nutrition, stress resistance and pathogenicity
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Implications of bacterial-fungal interactions (BFIs) for agriculture. A Bacteria can occur together with fungal pathogens in the same plant microbiota without any disease symptoms due to their regulation by BFIs. B Fungal pathogens can enrich antagonists by themselves which then antagonize them. C Infected plants can recruit beneficial bacteria via the ‘cry for help’ mechanism which then antagonize the attacking fungal pathogen. D Fungal pathogens commonly develop defense mechanisms when exposed to bacterial antagonism
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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