Synergism of endophytic microbiota and plants promotes the removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the Alfalfa rhizosphere

Endophytic bacteria can promote plant growth and accelerate pollutant degradation. However, it is unclear whether endophytic consortia (Consortium_E) can stabilize colonisation and degradation. We inoculated Consortium_E into the rhizosphere to enhance endophytic bacteria survival and promote pollutant degradation. Rhizosphere-inoculated Consortium_E enhanced polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) degradation rates by 11.5-13.1 % compared with sole bioaugmentation and plant treatments. Stable-isotope-probing (SIP) showed that the rhizosphere-inoculated Consortium_E had the largest number of degraders (8 amplicon sequence variants). Furthermore, only microbes from Consortium_E were identified among the degraders in bioaugmentation treatments, indicating that directly participated in phenanthrene metabolism. Interestingly, Consortium_E reshaped the community structure of degraders without significantly altering the rhizosphere community structure, and strengthened the core position of degraders in the network, facilitating close interactions between degraders and non-degraders in the rhizosphere, which were crucial for ensuring stable functionality. The synergistic effect between plants and Consortium_E significantly enhanced the upregulation of aromatic hydrocarbon degradation and auxiliary degradation pathways in the rhizosphere. These pathways showed a non-significant increasing trend in the uninoculated rhizosphere compared with the control, indicating that Consortium_E primarily promotes rhizosphere effects. Our results explore the Consortium_E bioaugmentation mechanism, providing a theoretical basis for the ecological restoration of contaminated soils.