Culturomics of Andropogon gerardii rhizobiome revealed nitrogen transforming capabilities of stress-tolerant Pseudomonas under drought conditions

Background Climate change will result in more frequent droughts that impact soil-inhabiting microbiomes in the agriculturally vital North American perennial grasslands. In this study, we used the combination of culturomics and high-resolution genomic sequencing of microbial consortia isolated from the rhizosphere of a tallgrass prairie foundation grass, Andropogon gerardii . We cultivated the plant host-associated microbes under artificial drought-induced conditions and identified the microbe(s) that might play a significant role in the rhizobiome of Andropogon gerardii under drought conditions. Results Phylogenetic analysis of the non-redundant metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) identified the bacterial population of interest – MAG- Pseudomonas . Further metabolic pathway and pangenome analyses detected genes and pathways related to nitrogen transformation and stress responses in MAG- Pseudomonas . Conclusions Our data indicate that the metagenome-assembled MAG- Pseudomonas has the functional potential to contribute to the plant host’s growth during stressful conditions. This study provided insights into optimizing plant productivity under drought conditions.