Rhizosphere bacterial characteristics reveal the invasive advantage of Sphagneticola trilobata compared to the greening grass Axonopus compressus

Rhizosphere bacterial characteristics reveal the invasive advantage of Sphagneticola trilobata compared to the greening grass Axonopus compressus | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Rhizosphere bacterial characteristics reveal the invasive advantage of Sphagneticola trilobata compared to the greening grass Axonopus compressus Guixiang Li, Xin Liu, Mingzhao Han, Xiao Qin, Peng Li This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7532857/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 10 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in BMC Microbiology → Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background: Due to the excellent invasive ability, the plant Sphagneticola trilobata p oses a severe threat to local ecosystems . We hypothesized that its invasive success is highly related to its ability of shaping a beneficial rhizosphere microbiome. To test this, we compared the rhizosphere bacterial communities of S. trilobata (SRS) and a common greening grass Axonopus compressus (ARS). Result: We found that S. trilobata cultivates a significantly more diverse and structurally distinct bacterial community, enriched with key taxa (Rhizobiales, Cytophagales, Pseudomonadaceae, Comamonadaceae, and Novosphingobium ) that are known as the groups associated with nitrogen fixation and plant growth promotion, and exhibited a more complex and cooperative interaction network than ARS. Functional predictions indicated an enhanced capacity for lipid and carbohydrate metabolism in SRS, suggesting efficient nutrient cycling around its rhizosphere. Crucially, a synthetic community (SynCom) constructed from SRS-enriched bacteria promoted the biomass of S. trilobata significantly and altered resource allocation towards roots under nutrient-poor conditions. Conclusion: Our findings provide strong evidence that S. trilobata engineers a specialized rhizosphere microbiome that confers direct competitive advantage compared with other local plants, revealing a key microbial mechanism underlying its successful invasion. ecological balance microbe-plant interplay weed invasion rhizosphere microbiome Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files TableS1.docx SupplementaryInformation.docx FigureS1.tif FigureS3.tif FigureS4.tif FigureS2.tif Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 10 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in BMC Microbiology → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 22 Dec, 2025 Reviews received at journal 18 Dec, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 15 Dec, 2025 Reviews received at journal 07 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 19 Sep, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 18 Sep, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 18 Sep, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 17 Sep, 2025 First submitted to journal 17 Sep, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7532857","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":521787177,"identity":"27ccb200-a779-471c-a878-19c2e8eb3123","order_by":0,"name":"Guixiang Li","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Hainan Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guixiang","middleName":"","lastName":"Li","suffix":""},{"id":521787178,"identity":"7d580bf1-7e9b-41be-8442-1ace4c0eda2f","order_by":1,"name":"Xin Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Hainan Normal 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compressus","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-microbiology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"mcro","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Microbiology](http://bmcmicrobiol.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/mcro","title":"BMC Microbiology","twitterHandle":"#bmcmicrobiology","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"ecological balance, microbe-plant interplay, weed invasion, rhizosphere microbiome","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7532857/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7532857/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBackground: \u003c/strong\u003eDue to the excellent invasive ability, the plant\u003cem\u003e Sphagneticola trilobata\u003c/em\u003e p\u003cu\u003eoses a severe threat to local ecosystems\u003c/u\u003e. We hypothesized that its invasive success is highly related to its ability of shaping a beneficial rhizosphere microbiome. To test this, we compared the rhizosphere bacterial communities of \u003cem\u003eS. trilobata \u003c/em\u003e(SRS) and a common greening grass \u003cem\u003eAxonopus compressus \u003c/em\u003e(ARS). \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cstrong\u003eResult: \u003c/strong\u003eWe found that \u003cem\u003eS. trilobata \u003c/em\u003ecultivates a significantly more diverse and structurally distinct bacterial community, enriched with key taxa (Rhizobiales, Cytophagales, Pseudomonadaceae, Comamonadaceae, and \u003cem\u003eNovosphingobium\u003c/em\u003e) that are known as the groups associated with nitrogen fixation and plant growth promotion, and exhibited a more complex and cooperative interaction network than ARS. Functional predictions indicated an enhanced capacity for lipid and carbohydrate metabolism in SRS, suggesting efficient nutrient cycling around its rhizosphere. Crucially, a synthetic community (SynCom) constructed from SRS-enriched bacteria promoted the biomass of \u003cem\u003eS. trilobata\u003c/em\u003e significantly\u003cem\u003e \u003c/em\u003eand altered resource allocation towards roots under nutrient-poor conditions. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cstrong\u003eConclusion: \u003c/strong\u003eOur findings provide strong evidence that \u003cem\u003eS. trilobata\u003c/em\u003e engineers a specialized rhizosphere microbiome that confers direct competitive advantage compared with other local plants, revealing a key microbial mechanism underlying its successful invasion.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Rhizosphere bacterial characteristics reveal the invasive advantage of Sphagneticola trilobata compared to the greening grass Axonopus compressus","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-09-30 20:03:23","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7532857/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-12-22T06:05:31+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-12-18T17:54:02+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"180587170332839588641944006782516036976","date":"2025-12-15T12:49:28+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-10-07T10:11:37+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"92215650331621737962450278235756202157","date":"2025-09-19T10:21:10+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-09-18T15:05:59+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-09-18T14:49:26+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-09-17T08:32:15+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"BMC Microbiology","date":"2025-09-17T08:27:35+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-microbiology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"mcro","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Microbiology](http://bmcmicrobiol.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/mcro","title":"BMC Microbiology","twitterHandle":"#bmcmicrobiology","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"0cc5fe86-d7af-4e81-b69d-0e8950e75785","owner":[],"postedDate":"September 30th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-16T16:00:33+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-7532857","link":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-026-04817-y","journal":{"identity":"bmc-microbiology","isVorOnly":false,"title":"BMC Microbiology"},"publishedOn":"2026-02-10 15:57:47","publishedOnDateReadable":"February 10th, 2026"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-09-30 20:03:23","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1186/s12866-026-04817-y","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-026-04817-y","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7532857","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7532857","identity":"rs-7532857","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}