The cultivation regimes of Morchella sextelata trigger shifts in the community assemblage and ecological traits of soil bacteria

Yan Zhang; Qi Zhao; Stéphane Uroz; Tianpeng Gao; Jing Li; Fengqin He; Rusly Rosazlina; Francis Martin; Lingling Xu

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1257905

The cultivation regimes of Morchella sextelata trigger shifts in the community assemblage and ecological traits of soil bacteria

Front Microbiol. 2023 Sep 21:14:1257905. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1257905. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yan Zhang^{1

2}, Qi Zhao³, Stéphane Uroz⁴, Tianpeng Gao^{2

5}, Jing Li², Fengqin He², Rusly Rosazlina¹, Francis Martin⁴, Lingling Xu^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
² Xi'an Key Laboratory of Plant Stress Physiology and Ecological Restoration Technology, Key Laboratory of Natural Product Development and Anticancer Innovative Drug Research in Qinling, School of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Xi'an University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
³ Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Fungal Diversity and Green Development, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
⁴ Université de Lorraine, INRAE, UMR Interactions Arbres/Microorganismes, Centre INRAE Grand Est-Nancy, Champenoux, France.
⁵ The Engineering Research Center of Mining Pollution Treatment and Ecological Restoration of Gansu Province, Lanzhou City University, Lanzhou, China.

Abstract

The successful large-scale cultivation of morel mushrooms (Morchella sextelata) requires a comprehensive understanding of the soil bacterial communities associated with morel-farming beds, as the interactions between fungi and bacteria play a crucial role in shaping the soil microbiome. In this study, we investigated the temporal distribution and ecological characteristics of soil bacteria associated with morel fruiting bodies at different stages, specifically the conidial and primordial stages, under two cropping regimes, non-continuous cropping (NCC) and continuous cropping (CC). Our findings revealed a significant reduction in the yield of morel primordia during the third year following 2 years of CC (0.29 ± 0.25 primordia/grid), in comparison to the NCC regime (12.39 ± 6.09 primordia/grid). Furthermore, inoculation with morel mycelia had a notable impact on soil bacterial diversity, decreasing it in the NCC regime and increasing the number of generalist bacterial members in the CC regime. The latter regime also led to the accumulation of nutrients in the soil beds, resulting in a shift from a stochastic to a deterministic process in the composition of the bacterial community, which differed from the NCC regime. Additionally, mycelial inoculation had a positive effect on the abundance of potential copiotrophic/denitrifying and N-fixing bacteria while decreasing the abundance of oligotrophic/nitrifying bacteria. Interestingly, this effect was more pronounced in the NCC regime than in the CC regime. These results suggest that the increase in potential copiotrophic/denitrifying and N-fixing bacteria facilitated the decomposition of nutrients in exogenous nutrient bags by morel mushrooms, thereby maintaining nitrogen balance in the soil. Overall, our study provides valuable insights into the interactions between morel mycelia and the associated soil bacteriome as well as the influence of different cultivation regimes on these interactions. These findings contribute to our understanding of the complex dynamics of the soil microbiome and can inform strategies for optimizing morel mushroom cultivation.

Keywords: Morchella sextelata; bacteriome; community assemblage; continuous cropping; ecological traits.