The bacterial community of rhizosphere soil maintains soil properties, regulates the microbiome, improves productivity, and sustains agriculture. However, the structure and function of bacterial communities have been interrupted or destroyed by unreasonable agricultural practices, especially the excessive use of chemical fertilizers. Microbial inoculants, regarded as harmless, effective, and environmentally friendly amendments, are receiving more attention. Herein, the effects of three microbial inoculants, inoculant M and two commercial inoculants (A and S), on bacterial communities of maize rhizosphere soil under three nitrogen application rates were compared. Bacterial communities treated with the inoculants were different from those of the non-inoculant control. The OTU (operational taxonomic unit) numbers and alpha diversity indices were decreased by three inoculants, except for the application of inoculant M in CF group. Beta diversity showed the different structures of bacterial communities changed by three inoculants compared with control. Furthermore, key phylotypes analyses exhibited the differences of biomarkers between different treatments visually. Overall, inoculant M had shared and unique abilities of regulating bacterial communities compared with the other two inoculants by increasing potentially beneficial bacteria and decreasing the negative. This work provides a theoretical basis for the application of microbial inoculants in sustainable agriculture.

Microbial treatment has recently been attracting attention as a sustainable agricultural strategy addressing the current problems caused by unreasonable agricultural practices. However, the mechanism through which microbial inoculants promote plant growth is not well understood. In this study, two phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) were screened, and their growth-promoting abilities were explored. At day 7 (D7), the lengths of the root and sprout with three microbial treatments, M16, M44, and the combination of M16 and M44 (Com), were significantly greater than those with the non-microbial control, with mean values of 9.08 and 4.73, 7.15 and 4.83, and 13.98 and 5.68 cm, respectively. At day 14 (D14), M16, M44, and Com significantly increased not only the length of the root and sprout but also the underground and aboveground biomass. Differential metabolites were identified, and various amino acids, amino acid derivatives, and other plant growth-regulating molecules were significantly enhanced by the three microbial treatments. The profiling of key metabolites associated with plant growth in different microbial treatments showed consistent results with their performances in the germination experiment, which revealed the metabolic mechanism of plant growth-promoting processes mediated by screened PSB. This study provides a theoretical basis for the application of PSB in sustainable agriculture.