Pseudomonads associated to salt-stressed plants facilitate stress adaption of soybean through enhanced lignin biosynthesis

Zheng, Yanfen, Wang, Youqiang, Wang, Ziyan, Li, Zhe, Todd, Jonathan D., Meng, Chen, Hua, Shutian, Sui, Xiaona, Rui, Qingchen, Ma, Siqi, Li, Yiqiang, Liu, Jiwen, Zhao, Donglin and Zhang, Chengsheng (2026) Pseudomonads associated to salt-stressed plants facilitate stress adaption of soybean through enhanced lignin biosynthesis. Science Advances. ISSN 2375-2548 (In Press)

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Abstract

Root-associated microbiota play a critical role in plant tolerance to salt stress. However, the conservation of beneficial interactions across diverse crops and soils, and the underlying mechanisms, remain unclear. Here, we show that pseudomonads were consistently enriched in salt stressed plant roots across multiple soil types and most crop species. Comparative genomics revealed that these pseudomonads harbored unique genomic signatures associated with high salinity tolerance, such as Na+ transporters. Pseudomonad isolates from salt-stressed plants robustly colonized soybean roots, and significantly improved salt tolerance under both greenhouse and field conditions. Importantly, pseudomonads-dependent plant salt stress tolerance was mediated though plant lignin biosynthesis stimulation rather than the canonical ⁺ mechanism of Na homeostasis. Overexpression of the key plant lignin biosynthesis genes, including GmCAD, GmCOMT and Gm4CL, significantly enhanced soybean growth under salt stress. Furthermore, mutant plants deficient in lignin biosynthesis no longer showed pseudomonads-induced salt tolerance. Collectively, our findings reveal a previously unrecognized microbial-mediated pathway that enhances plant resilience to salt stress.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data and materials availability: The raw reads of 16S rRNA gene barcoding data (BioProject: PRJCA028745; https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/gsa/search?searchTerm=PRJCA028745) and RNA-seq data from soybean roots (BioProject: PRJCA041248; https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/gsa/search?searchTerm=PRJCA041248) have been deposited in the Genome Sequence Archive of China National Center for Bioinformation. All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. The nbsABC mutant strains and GFP-labeled strains can be provided by Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences pending scientific review and a completed material transfer agreement with C.Z. Requests for the nbsABC mutant strains and GFP-labeled strains should be submitted to: C.Z. at zhangchengsheng@caas.cn.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	root microbiota,pseudomonads,salt stress,lignin biosynthesis
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Wolfson Centre for Advanced Environmental Microbiology Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Molecular Microbiology
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	11 Jun 2026 15:11
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2026 15:11
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/103380
DOI:	issn:2375-2548

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