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Several soil microorganisms colonizing roots are known to naturally promote the health of plants by controlling a range of plant pathogens, including bacteria, fungi, and nematodes. The use of theses antagonistic microorganisms, recently named plant-probiotics, to control plant-pathogenic fungi is receiving increasing attention, as they may represent a sustainable alternative to chemical pesticides. Many years of research on plant-probiotic microorganisms (PPM) have indicated that fluorescent pseudomonads producing antimicrobial compounds are largely involved in the suppression of the most widespread soilborne pathogens. Phenotype and genotype analysis of plant-probiotic fluorescent pseudomonads (PFP) have shown considerable genetic variation among these types of strains. Such variability plays an important role in the rhizosphere competence and the biocontrol ability of PFP strains. Understanding the mechanisms by which genotypic and phenotypic diversity occurs in natural populations of PFP could be exploited to choose those agricultural practices which best exploit the indigenous PFP populations, or to isolate new plant-probiotic strains for using them as inoculants. A number of different methods have been used to study diversity within PFP populations. Because different resolutions of the existing microbial diversity can be revealed depending on the approach used, this review first describes the most important methods used for the assessment of fluorescent Pseudomonas diversity. Then, we focus on recent data relating how differences in genotypic and phenotypic diversity within PFP communities can be attributed to geographic location, climate, soil type, soil management regime, and interactions with other soil microorganisms and host plants. It becomes evident that plant-related parameters exert the strongest influence on the genotypic and phenotypic variations in PFP populations.

By comparing the distribution of two genomic markers among Pseudomonas strains recovered from the rhizosphere of two maize hybrids with those of strains recovered from the rhizosphere of their four respective parental lines, we showed that both hybrids supported more elite probiotic strains than the parents. Elite Pseudomonas strains showed genomic potential for both an appropriate in vitro 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG) productivity, and a superior root-colonization ability. The actual biocontrol and root-colonization abilities of these strains were confirmed by bioassays on five fungal strains and on axenic maize plants. Furthermore, results on the abundance and genetic diversity of resident DAPG+ Pseudomonas strains indicated that each hybrid was able to select its own specific DAPG+ population, whereas the four parental lines were not. The evidence that heterozygosis can drive maize plants to select elite probiotic rhizospheric DAPG+ Pseudomonas strains opens the way to a new strategy in the set up of plant breeding for low-input and organic agriculture.

A rhizobacterial population of 2430 Pseudomonas isolates, originating from one maize hybrid and from its parents, was screened for auxins production. Four hundred and twelve isolates were found to be auxin producers (aia+), and 27 of them were also part of a previously described PhlD+ sub-population. Interestingly, most part of the aia(+)-PhlD+ isolates came from the hybrid. This finding indicates that heterosis allows an increased colonisation by multi-beneficial PGPR strains. Furthermore, results on the abundance and genetic diversity of aia+ isolates gave evidence that maize root colonisation by aia+ Pseudomonas is an inherited trait regulated by heterosis. In fact, two times more aia+ isolates were obtained from the rhizosphere of the hybrid than from the rhizospheres of the parents, and an amplified rDNA restriction analysis showed that the hybrid increases the genetic diversity of aia+ populations when compared to its parents.

In biocontrol Pseudomonads, phlD is an essential gene involved in the biosynthesis of 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG). HaeIII restriction of amplified phlD gene, previously proposed as the most discriminant analysis, showed no polymorphism among 144 Pseudomonas strains isolated from maize roots. However, these strains fell into three statistically significant DAPG production level groups. phlD sequences of 13 strains belonging to the three DAPG groups revealed a KspI restriction site only in good DAPG-producing strains. This result was confirmed on the 144 strains, 82 of which were identified as good-DAPG producers by both biochemical and amplified phlD KspI restriction analysis. They are candidates as potential biocontrol agents.