Fig. 3: Isolation of the core Flavobacterium associated with the phosphorus starvation response.

a Growth status of ZS11 (7 days after germination) on CK, LP, and LP media inoculated with one of four Flavobacterium strains. White bars, 3 cm. b Scanning electron microscopy images of the lateral root surface of ZS11 grown under mock conditions (left) or inoculated with C2 (right). White bars, 10 μm. The experiment was conducted independently four times, yielding similar results in each case. c Colonization patterns of C2 in the roots of ZS11. White bars, 50 μm. Cor, cortex; End, endodermis; Ste, stele; LRP, lateral root primordium. Cyan indicates ZS11 root cells with a GFP signal, and red indicates C2 labeled with TRITC-d-Lys. The experiment was conducted independently three times, yielding similar results in each case. d Phosphorus-solubilizing halo on Pikovskaya’s solid medium of Flavobacterium C2 and the pH trend when cultured in Pikovskaya’s liquid medium. Four biological replicates were employed. The boxplot displays the median at the center, with the bounds of the box representing the lower quartile (Q1) and upper quartile (Q3). The ends of the whiskers indicate the minimum and maximum values. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. e Pie diagram of Flavobacterium C2 based on the KEGG annotated gene numbers related to metabolism. Different colors represent different types of metabolites. f Schematic diagrams of the key compound biosynthesis clusters or metabolic pathway. The color of each square box corresponds to the KEGG pathway in Fig. 3e. Key enzymes annotated in the C2 genome are shown in red, with the number of enzymes in parentheses. The morphology of the strain on PBS solid media with different pH values are shown.