Drought stress severely impacts agricultural productivity, yet mechanisms underlying microbial enhancement of plant drought tolerance remain poorly understood. This study investigated whether Sphingobacterium nripensae DR205 exhibits drought-specific plant growth promotion through conditional metabolic activation. We combined plant cultivation experiments, genome sequencing, and comparative transcriptomics to evaluate DR205 responses under normal and drought conditions with or without root exudates. DR205 showed minimal growth promotion under normal conditions but enhanced plant biomass by 74–344% specifically under drought stress. Genome analysis revealed complete pathways for both stress tolerance (osmolyte biosynthesis and antioxidant systems) and plant interaction (IAA production and nutrient mobilization). Transcriptomics uncovered dramatic metabolic reprogramming under drought, with branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) biosynthesis genes shifting from 27-fold suppression under root exudates to 17-fold upregulation under drought. Lysine biosynthesis showed similar drought-specific activation patterns. Critically, drought signals overrode plant signals maintaining BCAA activation regardless of root exudate presence and ensuring metabolic investment in plant support occurred specifically during water deficit. This conditional mutualism represents a novel bacterial strategy where plant support is selectively activated during environmental stress. These findings challenge conventional PGPR paradigms and offer new approaches for developing climate-resilient agricultural systems through targeted application of stress-responsive beneficial microbes.

Gui Nam Wee, Sunju Kim, Kyuwon Shim, and Soojin Jang. J Environ Health Sci. 2025;51:353-71. https://doi.org/10.5668/JEHS.2025.51.6.353