Microbial Community Dynamics of Soybean (Glycine max) Is Affected by Cropping Sequence

Abstract

The microbial composition of the rhizosphere soil could be an important determinant of crop yield, pathogen resistance, and other beneficial attributes in plants. However, little is known about the impact of cropping sequences on microbial community dynamics, especially in economically important species like soybean. Using 2-year crop sequences of corn-soybean, canola-soybean, and soybean-soybean, we investigated how crops from the previous growing season influenced the structure of the microbiome in both the bulk soil and soybean rhizosphere. A combination of marker-based Illumina sequencing and bioinformatics analyses was used to show that bacterial species richness and evenness in the soybean rhizosphere soil were similar following canola and soybean compared to a previous corn sequence. However, fungal species richness and evenness remained unaffected by crop sequence. In addition, bacterial and fungal species diversity in both the bulk and soybean rhizosphere soil were not influenced by crop sequence. Lastly, the corn-soybean sequence significantly differed in the relative abundance of certain bacterial and fungal classes in both the soybean rhizosphere and bulk soil. While canola-soybean and a continuous soybean sequence did not, suggesting that a preceding corn sequence may reduce the occurrence of overall bacterial and fungal community members. For the present study, crop sequence impacts bacterial diversity and richness in both the bulk soil and soybean rhizosphere soil whereas fungal diversity and richness are resilient to crop sequence practices. Together, these findings could help drive decision making for annual crop and soil management practices.

The shift of soil microbial community induced by cropping sequence affect soil properties and crop yield

“…In the present study also a similar microbial abundance was found. Analogously, Bolaji et al (2021) reported Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Acidobacteria as the dominant taxa in canola, corn, and soybean crop rotation planting systems.…”

“…Xie et al (2022) found that the crop rotation stage strongly affected the soil microbial community structure and assembly compared to that of the fertilization regime. The cropping sequences within the rotation can change soil microbial communities and give favorable impacts for increased agronomic performance (Bolaji et al, 2021). Microorganisms have been shown to improve plant development by secreting metabolites, mobilizing nutrients, and alleviating biotic and abiotic stresses (Tahir et al, 2017;Bolaji et al, 2021).…”

“…The cropping sequences within the rotation can change soil microbial communities and give favorable impacts for increased agronomic performance (Bolaji et al, 2021). Microorganisms have been shown to improve plant development by secreting metabolites, mobilizing nutrients, and alleviating biotic and abiotic stresses (Tahir et al, 2017;Bolaji et al, 2021). Crop rotation sequences appear to have a direct impact on the structure of microbial communities associated with soil and plants (Zhang et al, 2019;Neupane et al, 2021).…”

“…Crop rotations can improve disease suppression capacity by influencing soil bacterial composition or increasing the quantity of disease-suppressive microorganisms (Peralta et al, 2018). Previous studies have shown that crop rotation strategies changed microbial communities over time due to cropping sequence practices (Bolaji et al, 2021;Meier et al, 2021). In wheat-soybean rotation, soybean planting increased the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Glomeromycota (Guo et al, 2020).…”

Tapping into Plant–Microbiome Interactions through the Lens of Multi-Omics Techniques

“…Sixty-four sequences of the soil microbiome of rice have been characterized by metagenomics [ 73 ]. Nevertheless, the metagenome-based approach provides new insights into the variation of fungal populations, bacterial diversity, and their richness in both the bulk soil and rhizosphere of soybean [ 74 ], the effects of continuous sugar beet cultivation on its endophytes [ 75 ] and the assessment of rhizosphere diversity and endophytic fungi in Atractylodes macrocephala [ 76 ].…”