In this issue, we recommend an article published by the research team of Professor Li Zhu of Guizhou University in the well-known Journal PeerJ ：Mutation Breeding of Aspergillus Niger by Atmospheric Room Temperature Plasma to Enhance Phosphorus Solubilization Ability.

Abstract：

Phosphorus (P) is the second essential macronutrient for plant growth and development. Although P only accounts for 0.2% of plant dry weight, low P availability can generate a strong limit in plant growth and crop yield. The natural reserve of soluble P fractions is much lower than expected, which may just have a range of doses from 1.0 μg L–1 to 1.0 mg L–1 in soil solutions. This is formed due to mineral P compounds that are easily combined with aluminum, calcium, iron, and magnesium together the tight fixation of in a form of soil colloids . Therefore, many crops are suffering the problem of low P deficiency.

Compared with the A. niger xj strain, setting the treatment time of mutagenesis to 120 s, four positive mutant strains marked as xj 90–32, xj120–12, xj120–31, and xj180–22 had higher P-solubilizing rates by 50.3%, 57.5%, 55.9%, and 61.4%, respectively. Among them, the xj120–12 is a highly efficient P solubilizing and growth-promoting strain with good application prospects. The growth characteristics such as plant height, root length, and dry and fresh biomass of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) increased by 33.5%, 43.8%, 43.4%, and 33.6%, respectively. Besides available P, the chlorophyll and soluble protein contents also vary degrees of increase in the P-solubilizing mutant strains. The results showed that the ARTP mutagenesis technology can improve the P solubilization abilities of the A. niger mutant strains and make the biomass of peanut plants was enhanced of mutant strains.

Content：