Bioprospecting of Beneficial Bacteria Traits Associated With Tomato Root in Greenhouse Environment Reveals That Sampling Sites Impact More Than the Root Compartment

Tomato is subject to several diseases that affect both field- and greenhouse-grown crops. To select cost-effective potential biocontrol agents, we used laboratory throughput screening to identify bacterial strains with versatile characteristics suitable for multipurpose uses. The natural diversity of tomato root–associated bacterial communities was bioprospected under a real-world environment represented by an intensive tomato cultivation area characterized by extraseasonal productions in the greenhouse. Approximately 400 tomato root–associated bacterial isolates, in majority Gram-negative bacteria, were isolated from three compartments: the soil close to the root surface (rhizosphere, R), …