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Background Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria are increasingly being seen as a way of complementing conventional inputs in agricultural systems. The effects on their host plants are diverse and include volatile-mediated growth enhancement. This study sought to assess the effects of bacterial volatiles on the biomass production and root system architecture of the model grass Brachypodium distachyon (L.) Beauv. Results An in vitro experiment allowing plant-bacteria interaction throughout the gaseous phase without any physical contact was used to screen 19 bacterial strains for their growth-promotion ability over a 10-day co-cultivation period. Five groups of bacteria were defined and characterised based on their combined influence on biomass production and root system architecture. The observed effects ranged from unchanged to greatly increased biomass production coupled with increased root length and branching. Primary root length was increased only by the volatile compounds emitted by Enterobacter cloacae JM22 and Bacillus pumilus T4. Overall, the most significant results were obtained with Bacillus subtilis GB03, which induced an 81 % increase in total biomass, as well as enhancing total root length, total secondary root length and total adventitious root length by 88.5, 201.5 and 474.5 %, respectively. Conclusions This study is the first report on bacterial volatile-mediated growth promotion of a grass plant. Contrasting modulations of biomass production coupled with changes in root system architecture were observed. Most of the strains that increased total plant biomass also modulated adventitious root growth. Under our screening conditions, total biomass production was strongly correlated with the length and branching of the root system components, except for primary root length. An analysis of the emission kinetics of the bacterial volatile compounds is being undertaken and should lead to the identification of the compounds responsible for the observed growth-promotion effects. Within the context of the inherent characteristics of our in vitro system, this paper identifies the next critical experimental steps and discusses them from both a fundamental and an applied perspective. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-015-0585-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Solanum lycopersicum or tomato is extensively studied with respect to the ethylene metabolism during climacteric ripening, focusing almost exclusively on fruit pericarp. In this work the ethylene biosynthesis pathway was examined in all major tomato fruit tissues: pericarp, septa, columella, placenta, locular gel and seeds. The tissue specific ethylene production rate was measured throughout fruit development, climacteric ripening and postharvest storage. All ethylene intermediate metabolites (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC), malonyl-ACC (MACC) and S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM)) and enzyme activities (ACC-oxidase (ACO) and ACC-synthase (ACS)) were assessed. Results All tissues showed a similar climacteric pattern in ethylene productions, but with a different amplitude. Profound differences were found between tissue types at the metabolic and enzymatic level. The pericarp tissue produced the highest amount of ethylene, but showed only a low ACC content and limited ACS activity, while the locular gel accumulated a lot of ACC, MACC and SAM and showed only limited ACO and ACS activity. Central tissues (septa, columella and placenta) showed a strong accumulation of ACC and MACC. These differences indicate that the ethylene biosynthesis pathway is organized and regulated in a tissue specific way. The possible role of inter- and intra-tissue transport is discussed to explain these discrepancies. Furthermore, the antagonistic relation between ACO and E8, an ethylene biosynthesis inhibiting protein, was shown to be tissue specific and developmentally regulated. In addition, ethylene inhibition by E8 is not achieved by a direct interaction between ACO and E8, as previously suggested in literature. Conclusions The Ethylene biosynthesis pathway and E8 show a tissue specific and developmental differentiation throughout tomato fruit development and ripening.