PLoS One. 2014; 9(1): e86610.
Xing Liu1,2, Junlian Zhang3,4, Tianyu Gu5, Wenming Zhang1,2, Qirong Shen6, Shixue Yin5*, Huizhen Qiu1,2*
1College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China, 2Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China, 3College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China, 4Gansu Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic and Germplasm Enhancement, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, China, 5College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jaingsu Province, China, 6Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Organic Solid Waste Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
Abstract
Background: Previous 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 Findings: Soils 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 (HShannon) and richness (SChao1) 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.
Conclusions: Soil 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.
Citation: Liu X, Zhang J, Gu T, Zhang W, Shen Q, et al. (2014) Microbial Community Diversities and Taxa Abundances in Soils along a Seven-Year Gradient of Potato Monoculture Using High Throughput Pyrosequencing Approach. PLoS ONE 9(1): e86610. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0086610
Editor: Kevin McCluskey, University of Missouri, United States of America
Received August 24, 2013; Accepted December 11, 2013; Published January 30, 2014
Copyright: 2014 Liu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This work was supported by the Agricultural Ministry of China (201103004), the Natural Science Foundation of China (31360500) and the National Nature Science Foundation of China (41071177). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
* E-mail: hzqiu@gsau.edu.cn (HQ); sxyin@yzu.edu.cn (SY)