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Plants release a wide set of secondary metabolites including volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Many of those compounds are considered to function as defense against herbivory, pests, and pathogens. However, little knowledge exists about the role of belowground plant VOCs for attracting beneficial soil microorganisms. We developed an olfactometer system to test the attraction of soil bacteria by VOCs emitted by Carex arenaria roots. Moreover, we tested whether infection of C. arenaria with the fungal pathogen Fusarium culmorum modifies the VOCs profile and bacterial attraction. The results revealed that migration of distant bacteria in soil towards roots can be stimulated by plant VOCs. Upon fungal infection, the blend of root VOCs changed and specific bacteria with antifungal properties were attracted. Tests with various pure VOCs indicated that those compounds can diffuse over long distance but with different diffusion abilities. Overall, this work highlights the importance of plant VOCs in belowground long-distance plant-microbe interactions.

During the last decades, research on the function of volatile organic compounds focused primarily on the interactions between plants and insects. However, microorganisms can also release a plethora of volatiles and it appears that microbial volatile organic compounds (mVOCs) can play an important role in intra- and inter-kingdom interactions. So far, most studies are focused on aboveground volatile-mediated interactions and much less information is available about the function of volatiles belowground. This minireview summarizes the current knowledge on the biological functions of mVOCs with the focus on mVOCs-mediated interactions belowground. We pinpointed mVOCs involved in microbe-microbe and microbe-plant interactions, and highlighted the ecological importance of microbial terpenes as a largely underexplored group of mVOCs. We indicated challenges in studying belowground mVOCs-mediated interactions and opportunities for further studies and practical applications.

Bacterial-fungal interactions are widespread in nature and there is a growing number of studies reporting distinct fungus-associated bacteria. However, little is known so far about how shifts in the fungus-associated bacteriome will affect the fungal host's lifestyle. In the present study, we describe for the first time the bacterial community associated with the saprotrophic fungus Mucor hiemalis, commonly found in soil and rhizosphere. Two broad-spectrum antibiotics that strongly altered the bacterial community associated with the fungus were applied. Our results revealed that the antibiotic treatment did not significantly reduce the amount of bacteria associated to the fungus but rather changed the community composition by shifting from initially dominating Alpha-Proteobacteria to dominance of Gamma-Proteobacteria. A novel approach was applied for the isolation of fungal-associated bacteria which also revealed differences between bacterial isolates obtained from the original and the antibiotic-treated M. hiemalis. The shift in the composition of the fungal-associated bacterial community led to significantly reduced fungal growth, changes in fungal morphology, behavior and secondary-metabolites production. Furthermore, our results showed that the antibiotic-treated isolate was more attractive and susceptible to mycophagous bacteria as compared to the original isolate. Overall, our study highlights the importance of the fungus-associated bacteriome for the host's lifestyle and interactions and indicate that isolation with antibacterials is not sufficient to eradicate the associated bacteria., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Protists are major predators of bacteria in soils. However, it remains unknown how protists sense their prey in this highly complex environment. Here, we investigated whether volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of six phylogenetic distinct soil bacteria affect the performance of three different soil protists and how that relates to direct feeding interactions. We observed that most bacteria affected protist activity by VOCs. However, the response of protists to the VOCs was strongly dependent on both the bacterial and protist interacting partner. Stimulation of protist activity by volatiles and in direct trophic interaction assays often coincided, suggesting that VOCs serve as signals for protists to sense suitable prey. Furthermore, bacterial terpene synthase mutants lost the ability to affect protists, indicating that terpenes represent key components of VOC-mediated communication. Overall, we demonstrate that volatiles are directly involved in protist-bacterial predator-prey interactions.

There is increasing evidence that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play essential roles in communication and competition between soil microorganisms. Here we assessed volatile-mediated interactions of a synthetic microbial community in a model system that mimics the natural conditions in the heterogeneous soil environment along the rhizosphere. Phylogenetic different soil bacterial isolates (Burkholderia sp., Dyella sp., Janthinobacterium sp., Pseudomonas sp., and Paenibacillus sp.) were inoculated as mixtures or monoculture in organic-poor, sandy soil containing artificial root exudates (ARE) and the volatile profile and growth were analyzed. Additionally, a two-compartment system was used to test if volatiles produced by inter-specific interactions in the rhizosphere can stimulate the activity of starving bacteria in the surrounding, nutrient-depleted soil. The obtained results revealed that both microbial interactions and shifts in microbial community composition had a strong effect on the volatile emission. Interestingly, the presence of a slow-growing, low abundant Paenibacillus strain significantly affected the volatile production by the other abundant members of the bacterial community as well as the growth of the interacting strains. Furthermore, volatiles released by mixtures of root-exudates consuming bacteria stimulated the activity and growth of starved bacteria. Besides growth stimulation, also an inhibition in growth was observed for starving bacteria exposed to microbial volatiles. The current work suggests that volatiles produced during microbial interactions in the rhizosphere have a significant long distance effect on microorganisms in the surrounding, nutrient-depleted soil.