Abstract: Metarhizium pingshaense is a biological control agent with huge potential. It is an important prerequisite of effective control of soil dwelling pests whether the introduced M. pingshaense can establish rapidly in the soil, where conidium germination is the first and crucial step of colonization. In this research, conidium germination of M. pingshaense in soils from uncovered and covered bamboo garden was measured under different soil conditions, including soil sterilization and supplement of different antibiotics, then soil 16S rDNA metagenomics was used to analyze the species structure of the soil bacterium. The results showed that conidium germination of M. pingshaense in soil from covered bamboo garden was significantly higher than that in soil from uncovered bamboo garden. With soil sterilization, conidium germination in the uncovered soil increased to the level of that in the covered bamboo garden soil. After addition of 6 antibiotics, there were significant difference in germination among the 6 antibiotics in the uncovered soil, but there were not difference in the covered soil. Results of soil 16S rDNA metagenomics showed that both amount and species diversity of bacteria in the uncovered soil were higher than those in the covered soil, and bacteria of Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes in the uncovered soil were significantly more abundant than those in the covered soil.

Key words: Metarhizium pingshaense, soil bacterium, soil factors, antibiotics, 16S rDNA