Soil bacterial community response to continuous cropping of cotton

Zheng Ma; Peng Li; Chuanzhen Yang; Zili Feng; Hongjie Feng; Yalin Zhang; Lihong Zhao; Jinglong Zhou; Heqin Zhu; Feng Wei

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1125564

Soil bacterial community response to continuous cropping of cotton

Front Microbiol. 2023 Jan 26:14:1125564. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1125564. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Zheng Ma^{1

2

3}, Peng Li², Chuanzhen Yang², Zili Feng^{1

2}, Hongjie Feng^{2

3}, Yalin Zhang^{1

2}, Lihong Zhao^{1

2}, Jinglong Zhou², Heqin Zhu^{2

3}, Feng Wei^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Research Center of Cotton Biology Breeding and Industrial Technology, Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Anyang, China.
² Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Anyang, China.
³ Zhengzhou Research Base, State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Long-term continuous cropping may result in the outbreak and proliferation of soil-borne diseases, as well as reduction in annual crop production. Overcoming the obstacles of continuous cropping is critical for the long-term growth of modern agriculture. Soil microbes are essential for plant health, but the consequences of continuous cropping on soil microbiome are still poorly understood.

Methods: This study analyzed changes in soil bacterial community composition of Aksu (AKS) and Shihezi (SHZ) in Xinjiang Province during 1-20 years of continuous cropping by 16S amplicon sequencing. The results showed that the incidence of cotton Verticillium wilt rose with the number of cropping years. The bacterial alpha diversity in the AKS soil grew as the number of continuous cropping years increased, however it declined in the SHZ soil.

Results: The results of beta diversity analysis showed that there were significant differences in soil bacterial communities between different continuous cropping years and between different soils. The results of community composition changes at the level of main phyla and genus showed that the relative abundance of Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Streptomyces decreased with the increase of continuous cropping years in the AKS and the SHZ soils. In addition, Actinobacteria, Propionibacteriales, and Nocardioidaceae were significantly enriched during the early stages of continuous cropping. Network analysis showed that long-term (≥8 years) continuous cropping interfered with the complexity of soil bacterial co-occurrence networks and reduced collaboration between OTUs.

Discussion: These findings suggested that continuous cropping and soil origin jointly affected the diversity and structural of bacterial communities, and the loss of Nocardioidaceae and Streptomyces in Actinobacteria might be one of the reasons of continuous cropping obstacles.

Keywords: Verticillium wilt; amplicon sequencing; continuous cropping obstacle; cotton; soil microbe.