Insight into application of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria promoting phosphorus availability during chicken manure composting

Understanding ecological roles of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) is important to optimize composting systems. Illumina MiSeq sequencing, gene quantitation, and statistical analyses were employed to explore ecological mechanisms underlying available phosphorus (AP) facilitation during composting with the inoculation of PSB Pseudomonas sp. WWJ-22. Results displayed that the inoculation of PSB significantly increased AP from 0.83 to 1.23 g kg-1, and notably increased abundances of phosphorus-cycling genes as well as numbers of PSB mineralizing phytate and lecithin. The PSB addition significantly affected compost bacterial community composition, and phosphorus factions and phosphorus-cycling genes independently explained 25.4 % and 25.0 % bacterial compositional dissimilarity. Stochastic and homogenizing processes affected more on bacterial com-munity assembly, and rare bacteria potentially mediated organic phosphorus mineralization. These results emphasized that phosphorus fractions, PSB number, phosphorus-cycling gene abundance, and bacterial com-munity composition contributed differently to phosphorus availability. Findings highlight ecological roles of exogenous PSB during chicken manure composting.