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. 2016 Feb 23:6:21938.
doi: 10.1038/srep21938.

Pepino (Solanum muricatum) planting increased diversity and abundance of bacterial communities in karst area

Jinxiang Hu  1 , Hui Yang  1 , Xiaohua Long  1 , Zhaopu Liu  1 , Zed Rengel  2
Affiliations

Pepino (Solanum muricatum) planting increased diversity and abundance of bacterial communities in karst area

Jinxiang Hu et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Soil nutrients and microbial communities are the two key factors in revegetation of barren environments. Ecological stoichiometry plays an important role in ecosystem function and limitation, but the relationships between above- and belowground stoichiometry and the bacterial communities in a typical karst region are poorly understood. We used pepino (Solanum muricatum) to examine the stoichiometric traits between soil and foliage, and determine diversity and abundance of bacteria in the karst soil. The soil had a relatively high pH, low fertility, and coarse texture. Foliar N:P ratio and the correlations with soil nitrogen and phosphorus suggested nitrogen limitation. The planting of pepino increased soil urease activity and decreased catalase activity. Higher diversity of bacteria was determined in the pepino rhizosphere than bulk soil using a next-generation, Illumina-based sequencing approach. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phyla in all samples, accounting for more than 80% of the reads. On a genus level, all 625 detected genera were found in all rhizosphere and bulk soils, and 63 genera showed significant differences among samples. Higher Shannon and Chao 1 indices in the rhizosphere than bulk soil indicated that planting of pepino increased diversity and abundance of bacterial communities in karst area.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Correlations between foliar N:P ratio and soil total N (A) and total P (B) for the two quadrats. For (A), linear regression was fitted for the T2 (R2 = 0.60, p < 0.01, n = 9). For (B), linear regression was fitted for T3 (R2 = 0.49, p = 0.04, n = 9).
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Rarefaction curves showing the observed OTU richness (97% identity) of the 16S rRNA gene with increasing sequencing depth. (b–f) Percentage of different bacteria phyla in each soil sample. Data are means ± standard error (n = 3). One-way ANOVA followed by Duncan test (p = 0.05) was done for each bacterial phylum separately. Sequences that could not be classified into any known groups were labeled “Others”.
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