Salinity stress significantly impacts agricultural productivity by damaging key plant mechanisms like photosynthesis, osmotic balance, and enzymatic activity. Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal, valued in Ayurveda for its anti-carcinogenic withanolides such as withaferin A, faces reduced yields due to soil salinity in India. Sustainable, eco-friendly methods are needed to mitigate salt stress and improve economic yield, as conventional approaches are environmentally unsustainable for long-term productivity. This study hypothesizes that plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) could effectively reduce salinity stress and enhance withaferin A production. The study evaluates the effects of nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Azotobacter chroococcum), phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens), potassium-solubilizing bacteria (Enterobacter esburiae), and a mycorrhizal consortium under saline (4.5 dS m-1) and non-saline conditions. The 4.5 dS m-1 sodium chloride salinity dose significantly (p < 0.05) reduced growth attributes and increased malondialdehyde (p < 0.001) (MDA) content, electrolytic leakage (p < 0.0001) (EL), and sodium-potassium ratio (p < 0.001) by 113.38%, 79.51%, and 114.85%, respectively, compared to control. Among all the biofertilizer treatments, AMF inoculation most effectively improved (p < 0.05) growth parameters and decreased MDA (p < 0.01), EL (p < 0.001), and sodium-potassium ratio (p < 0.0001) by 69.99%, 21.42%, and 66.96%, respectively. Under salinity stress, AMF inoculation maximally increased (p < 0.0001) withaferin A by 49.07%, while PGPB increased (p < 0.05) it upto 34.54%. The findings suggest that AMF and PGPB alleviate salinity stress by reducing lipid peroxidation and electrolyte leakage, regulating the sodium-potassium ratio, and enhancing withanolide production in W. somnifera. Thus, microbial inoculation offers a sustainable, eco-friendly approach to improving the growth and yield of secondary metabolites in W. somnifera in salt-affected regions.

The ginseng industry's reliance on chemicals for fertilizer and pesticides has adversely affected the environment and decreased the quality of ginseng; therefore, microbial inoculum is an effective way to restore the damaged soil in ginseng fields. To investigate the effects of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and spent mushroom substrate (SMS) on soil and plant quality in ginseng, high throughput sequencing was performed to examine the microbial community structures in ginseng rhizosphere soil. All treatments significantly increased soil nutrient, enzyme activity, and ginseng biomass compared to control (p < 0.05). The combination of PGPR and SMS notably enhanced soil enzyme activities: urease (7.29%), sucrase (29.76%), acid phosphatase (13.24%), and amylase (38.25%) (p < 0.05). All treatments had different effects on ginseng rhizosphere soil microbial diversity. Significantly, the combination treatments enhanced microbial diversity by increasing the abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Allorhizobium-Neorhizobium-Pararhizobium-Rhizobium and Plectosphaerella, meanwhile suppressing harmful Klebsiella. The relative abundance of Fusarium was reduced to some extent compared with the application of SMS alone. The soil organic matter, available potassium, available phosphorus, and alkaline nitrogen, as key factors, influenced microbial community structures. Overall, the combination of PGPR and SMS positively impacted the rhizosphere environment and ginseng plant quality.

Introduction The phenomenon in which the damage of plant diseases is suppressed by continuous cropping is defined as suppressiveness and the development of suppressive soils and key beneficial microorganisms have been identified through various previous studies. However, no studies have been conducted on microbial communities related to disease occurrence before the initial occurrence of diseases in crop monoculture.Methods We aimed to investigate the ecological modifications of pathogen population density in soil, disease occurrence rate, and microbiota community shifting during ginseng monoculture to better understand the tripartite social relationships in the monoculture system. To achieve the study's objectives, a long-term monoculture of ginseng was established. The microbial diversity and community structure were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing, and the pathogen population density and disease occurrence rate were determined using qPCR and observation.Results and discussion The results showed that the initial rhizosphere bacterial community of ginseng had already collapsed before the development of the root rot disease. The study also identified the crucial role of soil-borne pathogens in causing disease and the loss of initial keystone taxa populations in the early stages of monoculture. Our study revealed a novel aspect of soil microbiota dynamics during ginseng monoculture, with seven distinct microbes (Beijerinckiaceae, Comamonadaceae, Devosiaceae, Rhizobiaceae, Sphingobacteriaceae, Sphingomonadaceae, and Xanthomonadaceae) participating in soil nitrogen metabolism as an 'initial community' that regulates root rot disease through nutritional competition. The findings contribute to ecological research on disease-suppressiveness soil, disease management, and sustainable agriculture.

Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer, known as the King of Herbs, has been used as a nutritional supplement for both food and medicine with the functions of relieving fatigue and improving immunity for thousands of years in China. In agricultural planting, soil environments of different geographical origins lead to obvious differences in the quality of ginseng, but the potential mechanism of the differences remains unclear. In this study, 20 key differential metabolites, including ginsenoside Rb1, glucose 6-phosphate, etc., were found in ginseng from 10 locations in China using an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS)-untargeted metabolomics approach. The soil properties were analyzed and combined with metagenomics technology to explore the possible relationships among microbial elements in planting soil. Through Spearman correlation analysis, it was found that the top 10 microbial colonies with the highest abundance in the soil were significantly correlated with key metabolites. In addition, the relationship model established by the random forest algorithm and the quantitative relationship between soil microbial abundance and ginseng metabolites were successfully predicted. The XGboost model was used to determine 20(R)-ginseng Rg2 and 2 '(R)-ginseng Rg3 as feature labeled metabolites, and the optimal ginseng production area was discovered. These results prove that the accumulation of metabolites in ginseng was influenced by microorganisms in the planting soil, which led to geographical differences in ginseng quality.

Existing discrete element method-based simulation analysis of Panax notoginseng root soil separation still has the challenge to get the accurate and reliable basic parameters, which are necessary for discrete element simulation. In this paper, the P. notoginseng roots suitable for harvesting period were taken as the experimental object. Then using 3D scanning reverse modeling technology and EDEM software to establish the discrete element model of P. notoginseng, based on which, the physical and virtual tests were carried out to calibrate the simulation parameters. First, the basic physical parameters (density, triaxial geometric size, moisture content, shear modulus, and elastic modulus) and contact coefficients (static friction coefficient, rolling friction coefficient, and crash recovery coefficient between P. notoginseng roots and 65Mn steel) were measured by physical tests. Furthermore, treating the contact coefficients of P. notoginseng roots as the influence factor, the steepest uphill test, and four factors combing five levels of rotational virtual simulation are conducted. The measured relative error accumulation angle and simulation accumulation angle are set as the performance indices. The results show that the static friction coefficient, rolling friction coefficient, crash recovery coefficient, and surface energy coefficient of P. notoginseng roots are 0.55, 0.35, 0.16, and 19.5 J/m(2), respectively. Using calibration results as parameters of the vibration separation simulation test of P. notoginseng soil, the Box-Behnken vibration separation simulation tests were carried out, in which the vibration frequency, inclination angle, and vibration amplitude of separation device as factors, screening rate and damage rate of P. notoginseng soil complex are regarded as indices. The results show that the optimal operating parameters of the separation device are the vibration frequency of 10 Hz, the inclination angle of 5 degrees, and the amplitude of 6 cm. Based on the optimal operation parameters, the discrete element simulation experiment and field experiment of P. notoginseng roots soil separation are also performed to compare the soil three-dimensional trajectory space coordinates of P. notoginseng roots. From the results, three axis coordinate error is less than 15%. This proves that the calibration results are reliable. It can also provide the theoretical basis and technical support for the further study of the P. notoginseng root soil separation platform.

As an important medicinal plant, Panax notoginseng often suffers from various abiotic and biotic stresses during its growth, such as drought, heavy metals, fungi, bacteria and viruses. In this study, the symptom and physiological parameters of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV)-infected P. notoginseng were analyzed and the RNA-seq was performed. The results showed that CMV infection affected the photosynthesis of P. notoginseng, caused serious oxidative damage to P. notoginseng and increased the activity of several antioxidant enzymes. Results of transcriptome analysis and corresponding verification showed that CMV infection changed the expression of genes related to plant defense and promoted the synthesis of P. notoginseng saponins to a certain extent, which may be defensive ways of P. notoginseng against CMV infection. Furthermore, pretreatment plants with saponins reduced the accumulation of CMV. Thus, our results provide new insights into the role of saponins in P. notoginseng response to virus infection.

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is regarded as a priority environmental pollutant. This study explored the adsorption and accumulation of DEHP within the ginseng-soil system and the mechanism of DEHP toxicity to ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer). Under exposure to 22.10 mg/kg DEHP in soil, DEHP mainly accumulated in ginseng leaves (20.28 mg/kg), stems (4.84 mg/kg) and roots (2.00 mg/kg) after 42 days. The oxidative damage, metabolism, protein express of ginseng were comprehensively measured and analyzed. The results revealed that MDA presented an activation trend in ginseng stems and leaves after 42 days of DEHP exposure, while the opposite trend was observed for POD. Levels of ginsenoside metabolites Rg2, Rg3, Rg5, Rd, Rf and CK decreased in the ginseng rhizosphere exudates under DEHP stress. Further investigations revealed that DEHP disrupts ginsenoside synthesis by inducing glycosyltransferase (GS) and squalene synthase (SS) protein interactions. Molecular docking indicated that DEHP could stably bind to GS and SS by intermolecular forces. These findings provide new information on the ecotoxicological effect of DEHP on ginseng root.