Bacillus subtilis Regulates the Diversity of Rhizosphere Microorganisms and the Resistance to Clubroot in Cabbage

doi:10.16420/j.issn.0513-353x.2025-0665

Acta Horticulturae Sinica ›› 2026, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (6): 1779-1792.doi: 10.16420/j.issn.0513-353x.2025-0665

• Plant Protection • Previous Articles Next Articles

Bacillus subtilis Regulates the Diversity of Rhizosphere Microorganisms and the Resistance to Clubroot in Cabbage

WANG Yanhua¹, SHAO Weixing², AN Dongyan¹, MEI Xuewen¹, LI Qinfei¹, SI Jun¹^,^*()

¹ Key Laboratory of Agricultural Biosafety and Green Production in the Upper Yangtze River， Ministry of Education，College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture，Southwest University， Chongqing 400715， China
² Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Sciences， Chongqing 401329， China

Received:2025-12-19 Revised:2026-04-07 Online:2026-06-24 Published:2026-06-24
Contact: SI Jun

Abstract

Abstract:

Clubroot disease，caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae（Pb），severely impacts the yield and quality of cabbage. The regulatory mechanism of Bacillus subtilis（BS）on the rhizosphere microecology，as a biocontrol strain，remains unclear. In this study，by setting up root irrigation with BS，Pb，Pb + BS combined treatments，and a sterile water control，combined with 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing and rhizosphere metabolomics analysis，and measuring physiological indices such as disease index，biomass，and defensive enzyme activity，we systematically revealed the mechanism by which Bacillus subtilis（BS）regulates clubroot resistance in cabbage. The results showed that the Shannon index of the Pb + BS combined treatment increased compared with the Pb group，and the rhizosphere microbial α diversity differed significantly between the Pb group and the Pb + BS group，indicating that BS treatment improved the diversity of the microbial community under Pb stress. Compared with the sterile water control，509 differential metabolites were upregulated after BS treatment；k-means clustering analysis further showed that 364 of these metabolites were upregulated in specific trend clusters. BS treatment significantly increased the number of differential metabolites，enriched in defense-related metabolic pathways such as phenylpropane and flavonoids，and reshaped the microbial-metabolite association network. Association analysis showed that the enrichment of Myxococcota，Nitrospirota，and Methylomirabilis was associated with optimized rhizosphere nitrogen transformation efficiency and reduced reactive nitrogen stress. Meanwhile，BS induced the sequential activation of defense enzymes of POD and SOD（POD peak value reached 10.43 times that of the control group），and the disease index of the combined treatment（Pb + BS）was significantly reduced（54.5% reduction in potted plants），effectively inhibiting the proliferation of clubroot bacteria. This study demonstrates that Bacillus subtilis effectively inhibits clubroot disease in cabbage by reshaping the rhizosphere microbial community structure and periodically activating the plant defense system，thereby creating a synergistic disease resistance effect. This provides an important basis for the theory of plant-microbe interactions and the biological control of diseases.

Key words: cabbage, Plasmodiophora brassica, Bacillus subtilis, rhizosphere microbes, plant-microbe interactions, metabolomics

WANG Yanhua, SHAO Weixing, AN Dongyan, MEI Xuewen, LI Qinfei, SI Jun. Bacillus subtilis Regulates the Diversity of Rhizosphere Microorganisms and the Resistance to Clubroot in Cabbage[J]. Acta Horticulturae Sinica, 2026, 53(6): 1779-1792.

Figures/Tables 7

Fig. 1 Effects of different treatment groups on the incidence index and growth of Brassica oleracea CK：Sterile water control；Pb：Plasmodiophora brassica treatment group；BS：Bacillus subtilis treatment group；Pb + BS：Combined treatment group. Multiple comparisons were performed for significance，P < 0.05. The same below

Fig. 2 Dynamic changes in POD and SOD activities in Brassica oleracea leaves under different treatments

Fig. 3 Diversity and composition of rhizosphere microbial communities in Brassica oleracea under different treatments A：PCA；B：Shannon diversity，* and ** indicates the significant difference in the t-test（α = 0.05，α = 0.01）；C：Clustering tree-bar chart，the top 10 species in terms of species abundance

Fig. 4 Differences in metabolite volcano plots between different treatment groups and the control group in the rhizosphere of Brassica oleracea

Fig. 5 Cluster analysis of differential metabolites in the rhizosphere of Brassica oleracea The number of metabolites is in brackets

Fig. 6 KEGG enrichment pathway map of common differential metabolites in the rhizosphere of Brassica oleracea

Fig. 7 Correlation heatmap of rhizosphere metabolite clusters and microbial phyla in Brassica oleracea under different treatments Red indicates a positive correlation，while blue indicates a negative correlation.*，** and *** indicate significant correlations between metabolite clusters and microorganisms（P < 0.05，P < 0.01 and P < 0.001）

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Bacillus subtilis Regulates the Diversity of Rhizosphere Microorganisms and the Resistance to Clubroot in Cabbage

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