Integrative microbiome and transcriptome analyses reveal Telluria sp. 100-57A as a candidate for aphid suppression in pepper

Abstract

Management of Myzus persicae in pepper still depends largely on insecticides, but resistance limits the long-term effectiveness of chemical control. Here, we used a microbiome-guided approach to identify rhizosphere bacteria associated with aphid infestation and to evaluate their potential for aphid suppression. Pepper plants were grown in soil collected from nine field sites, and rhizosphere bacterial communities were profiled using full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing. After excluding soils with extreme physicochemical profiles, aphid-infested plants exhibited distinct rhizosphere bacterial communities characterized by the enrichment of Massilia, Rhizobium, and Chujaibacter. To further investigate these community-level patterns, culture-dependent isolation from aphid-associated rhizosphere soils yielded five strains assigned to the genera Telluria and Massilia. Among them, Telluria sp. 100-57A consistently reduced the estimated aphid population growth rate by 36.2% and 41.5% at the 500- and 1,000-fold dilutions, respectively, compared with the negative control. This strain also induced credible avoidance of treated leaves in detached-leaf choice assays. Transcriptome analysis of pepper plants treated with strain 100-57A showed enrichment of defense-related, jasmonic acid-related, and wound-response categories during the early response period relative to the negative control. Compared with acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM), strain 100-57A showed stronger enrichment of photosynthesis-related categories, suggesting a defense-associated transcriptional response distinct from ASM treatment. These findings support microbiome-informed strategies for identifying aphid-suppressive bacteria and highlight Telluria sp. 100-57A as a promising candidate for microbiome-based aphid management in pepper.