Rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities succession patterns related to growth of poplar fine roots

Abstract

Understanding the succession patterns of microbial community along root growth provides deep insights into interaction between fine roots and microbes. In the study, we investigated this issue using fine roots from poplar trees and grouped these fine roots into three growth stages: newborn white roots (WR), mature yellow roots (YR) and aging brown roots (BR). Root surface traits were observed under a scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Adhered soils on roots of the three growth stages were grouped into the three soil compartments, correspondingly. The 16S rRNA and ITS1 region were sequenced for bacteria and fungi inhabiting rhizosphere soils, respectively. Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) technology was employed to examine the biomass of bacterial and fungal communities. The anatomical traits of fine roots show apparent differences among the WR, YR and BR. Both bacteria and fungi have 25 dominant genera with a relative abundance over 1%, of which, four genera of the bacteria (Bacillus, Burkholderia, Ralstonia and Dyella) differ in abundance among the WR, YR and BR soil compartments and four genera of the fungi (Fusarium, Chaetomium, Penicillium and Scleroderma) differ in abundance among these soil compartments. The operational taxonomic units (OTUs) showed the highest richness in the WR soil compartment for bacteria and in the YR soil compartment for fungi, indicating a different succession pattern between the bacterial and fungal communities. Furthermore, the biomass of bacterial community is larger than the fungal community according to PLFAs, and both decreased along fine root growth. The total carbon (TC) in the soil increases along root growth while the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) decreases. Redundancy analysis (RDA) shows a close correlation between twelve dominant bacteria genera and the total organic carbon (TOC), the readily oxidizable organic carbon (ROC) and DOC and ten dominant fungi genera with the TOC and ROC. In conclusion, our results indicate that fine roots growth has shaped the composition and structure of root associated bacterial and fungal communities.

Keywords: High-throughput sequencing; Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA); Root morphological traits; Soil carbon component; Succession of soil microbial community.