Sustainable agriculture is an important global issue. The use of organic fertilizers can enhance crop yield and soil properties while restraining pests and diseases. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of long-term use of chemical and organic fertilizers on tea and rhizosphere soil properties in tea orchards. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and high-throughput sequencing technology analyses were used to investigate heavy metals content and bacterial composition in rhizosphere soils. Our results indicated that organic fertilizer treatment significantly decreased Cu, Pb and Cd contents in rhizosphere soil sample. The results also showed that treatment with organic fertilizer significantly decreased the contents of Cd, Pb and As in tea leaves. Furthermore, organic fertilizer significantly increased the amino acids content of tea and the pH of the soil. The use of organic fertilizer significantly increased in the relative abundance of Burkholderiales, Myxococcales, Streptomycetales, Nitrospirales, Ktedonobacterales, Acidobacteriales, Gemmatimonadales, and Solibacterales, and decreased the abundance of Pseudonocardiales, Frankiales, Rhizobiales, and Xanthomonadales. In conclusion, organic fertilizer can help to shape the microbial composition and recruit beneficial bacteria into the rhizosphere of tea, leading to improved tea quality and reduced heavy metals content in rhizosphere soil and tea leaves.

Inositol signaling is believed to play a crucial role in various aspects of plant growth and adaptation. As an important component in biosynthesis and degradation of myo-inositol and its derivatives, inositol phosphatases could hydrolyze the phosphate of the inositol ring, thus affecting inositol signaling. Until now, more than 30 members of inositol phosphatases have been identified in plants, which are classified intofive families, including inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatases (5PTases), suppressor of actin (SAC) phosphatases, SAL1 phosphatases, inositol monophosphatase (IMP), and phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN)-related phosphatases. The current knowledge was revised here in relation to their substrates and function in response to abiotic stress. The potential mechanisms were also concluded with the focus on their activities of inositol phosphatases. The general working model might be that inositol phosphatases would degrade the Ins(1,4,5)P₃ or phosphoinositides, subsequently resulting in altering Ca²⁺ release, abscisic acid (ABA) signaling, vesicle trafficking or other cellular processes.

Intercropping has been widely used to control disease and improve yield in agriculture. In this study, maize and peanut were used for non-separation intercropping (NS), semi-separation intercropping (SS) using a nylon net, and complete separation intercropping (CS) using a plastic sheet. In field experiments, two-year land equivalent ratios (LERs) showed yield advantages due to belowground interactions when using NS and SS patterns as compared to monoculture. In contrast, intercropping without belowground interactions (CS) showed a yield disadvantage. Meanwhile, in pot experiments, belowground interactions (found in NS and SS) improved levels of soil-available nutrients (nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P)) and enzymes (urease and acid phosphomonoesterase) as compared to intercropping without belowground interactions (CS). Soil bacterial community assay showed that soil bacterial communities in the NS and SS crops clustered together and were considerably different from the CS crops. The diversity of bacterial communities was significantly improved in soils with NS and SS. The abundance of beneficial bacteria, which have the functions of P-solubilization, pathogen suppression, and N-cycling, was improved in maize and peanut soils due to belowground interactions through intercropping. Among these bacteria, numbers of Bacillus, Brevibacillus brevis, and Paenibacillus were mainly increased in the maize rhizosphere. Burkholderia, Pseudomonas, and Rhizobium were mainly increased in the peanut rhizosphere. In conclusion, using maize and peanut intercropping, belowground interactions increased the numbers of beneficial bacteria in the soil and improved the diversity of the bacterial community, which was conducive to improving soil nutrient (N and P) supply capacity and soil microecosystem stability.