ENHANCEMENT OF POPULATION-DENSITIES OF PSEUDOMONAS-PUTIDA PPG7 IN AGRICULTURAL ECOSYSTEMS BY SELECTIVE FEEDING WITH THE CARBON SOURCE SALICYLATE

Sodium salicylate (1,000 mug/ml) was delivered through a drip irrigation system to agricultural field soils planted to tomato and infested with Pseudomonas putida PpG7, the host of the salicylate catabolic plasmid NAH7. In nonfumigated soils infested with approximately 10(3) CFU of PpG7 per g in the top 30 cm, population densities were increased up to 112-fold within 14 days of the initial application of salicylate compared with the densities in the respective nonamended soils. Mean season-long population densities of PpG7 in the top 30 cm of soil were significantly increased (P < 0.01) from 216 CFU/g in nonamended soils to 1,370 CFU/g in salicylate-amended soils. In the respective rhizosphere soils, mean population densities of PpG7 were significantly increased (P < 0.01) from 92 to 2,066 CFU/cm of root. Soil fumigation interacted (P < 0.01) with salicylate amendment and further increased the mean population densities of PpG7 in nonrhizosphere soil by an additional 5,689 CFU/g of soil. This fumigation effect was not detected in rhizosphere soils. The effect of salicylate in increasing population densities of PpG7 in soil also was affected by inoculum level, field site, and soil depth. Proportionate differences were greater in soils infested with approximately 10(3) CFU of PpG7 per g than in comparable soils infested with 10(5) CFU/g. In low-inoculum soils, increases from salicylate amendments were 26- and 29-fold in rhizosphere and nonrhizosphere soils, respectively, and in high-inoculum soils, the respective increases were 5.6- and 5-fold. No increases of fungi able to utilize salicylate were detected in soils amended with salicylate. However, soil fumigation with metham-sodium significantly reduced (P < 0.01) population densities of fungal salicylate utilizers in rhizosphere and nonrhizosphere soils.