Microbial Community Diversities and Taxa Abundances in Soils along a Seven-Year Gradient of Potato Monoculture Using High Throughput Pyrosequencing Approach

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious studies have focused on linking soil community structure, diversity, or specific taxa to disturbances. Relatively little attention has been directed to crop monoculture soils, particularly potato monoculture. Information about microbial community changes over time between monoculture and non-monoculture treatments is lacking. Furthermore, few studies have examined microbial communities in potato monoculture soils using a high throughput pyrosequencing approach.Methodology/Principal FindingsSoils along a seven-year gradient of potato monoculture were collected and microbial communities were characterized using high throughput pyrosequencing approach. Principal findings are as follows. First, diversity (H Shannon) and richness (S Chao1) indices of bacterial community, but not of fungal community, were linearly decreased over time and corresponded to a decline of soil sustainability represented by yield decline and disease incidence increase. Second, Fusarium, the only soilborne pathogen-associated fungal genus substantially detected, was linearly increased over time in abundance and was closely associated with yield decline. Third, Fusarium abundance was negatively correlated with soil organic matter (OM) and total nitrogen (TN) but positively with electrical conductivity (EC). Fourth, Fusarium was correlated in abundances with 6 bacterial taxa over time.ConclusionsSoil bacterial and fungal communities exhibited differential responses to the potato monoculture. The overall soil bacterial communities were shaped by potato monoculture. Fusarium was the only soilborne pathogen-associated genus associated with disease incidence increase and yield decline. The changes of soil OM, TN and EC were responsible for Fusarium enrichment, in addition to selections by the monoculture crop. Acidobacteria and Nitrospirae were linearly decreased over time in abundance, corresponding to the decrease of OM, suggesting their similar ecophysiologial trait. Correlations between abundance of Fusarium with several other bacterial taxa suggested their similar behaviors in responses to potato monoculture and/or soil variables, providing insights into the ecological behaviors of these taxa in the environment.

Pineapple–banana rotation reduced the amount of Fusarium oxysporum more than maize–banana rotation mainly through modulating fungal communities

“…The lower abundance of FOC in the pineapple treatment is in agreement with previous studies that have shown decreased FOC abundances linked to cultivar disease resistance (Hopkins and Elmstrom, 1984;Li et al, 2014;Liu et al, 2014). A higher abundance of Gymnopilus, belonging to Strophariaceae, was observed in the pineapple soils versus maize.…”

Application of Deep Pyrosequencing to the Analysis of Soil Microbial Communities in Different Lotus Fields

“…The same results have been observed in different types of soil (Buée et al, 2009;Lauber et al, 2008). However, this study showed that Basidiomycota accounted for 17.96% of the microbial abundance in our samples, in contrast to only 0.6% in the soil samples investigated by Liu et al (2014). The difference may be attributed to the difference of soil type; moreover, the use of different amplified fragments and different sequence databases for the phylogenetic assignment may also affect the experimental results about the contribution of Basidiomycota.…”

“…There were some differences in our results and other reported results. For example, it was reported that soil fungal diversity increased during continuous cropping with peanut (Liu et al, 2014) and during long-term monoculture of vanilla, while no obvious distinctions were observed among the bacteria (Xiong et al, 2014). Therefore, the change of soil fungal diversity may be different between aquatic plant environment and terrestrial plant environment.…”

Effects of Continuous Tomato Monoculture on Soil Microbial Properties and Enzyme Activities in a Solar Greenhouse

“…Continuous monoculture of tomato is more common in protected cultivation than in non-protected cultivation [11]. However, the continuous cropping of a single species leads to several soil-related obstacles [12,13], manifesting as retarded plant growth, serious pest and disease damage, low crop productivity, and soil degradation [14,15]. Numerous studies have asserted that the mechanisms of these obstacles mainly include changes in soil physicochemical properties, destruction of the ecological environment, and plant autotoxicity [16,17].…”