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| Construction of Synthetic Microbial Consortium and Its Mechanism of Enhancing Plant Tolerance to Cadmium |
| ZHAO Qing1, LI Na1, WANG Jian-Feng2,*, WEI Ting-Ting1, ZHANG Jing1, CHEN Lan-Lan1, TIAN Ming-Zhu1, GONG Ji-Yi1, YI Yin1,* |
1 College of Life Sciences/Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration for Biodiversity Conservation of Southwest Karst Mountains/Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Developmental Regulation of Guizhou Province, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China;
2 Center for Grassland Microbiome, State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China |
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Abstract Soil cadmium (Cd) contamination has become an increasingly serious environmental problem under intensified industrial and agricultural activities, posing significant threats to crop production and ecological security. Microbial remediation has attracted considerable attention as an environmentally friendly and cost-effective strategy. Synthetic microbial communities (SynComs), which are artificially assembled microbial consortia composed of functionally defined strains, represent controllable microbial systems capable of performing complex ecological functions through cooperative interactions. In recent years, SynComs have emerged as powerful tools for investigating plant-microbe interactions and for developing microbiome-based environmental solutions. This review summarizes the principles and design strategies for constructing SynComs and outlines the main approaches for their optimization and functional regulation. In addition, the potential roles of SynComs in plant-microbe interaction studies and environmental management are discussed, with a particular focus on their application in enhancing plant tolerance to cadmium stress. Overall, this review aims to provide theoretical insights into the ecological and molecular mechanisms underlying SynCom-mediated plant tolerance to heavy metal stress, and to offer new perspectives for the application of SynComs in the remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soils and sustainable agricultural development.
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Received: 03 October 2025
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Corresponding Authors:
*yiyin@gznu.edu.cn; wangjf12@lzu.edu.cn
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