Abstract
Fusarium wilt (FW) caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense Tropical Race 4 (TR4) is a soil-borne disease that infects bananas, causing severe economic losses worldwide. To reveal the relationship between bacterial populations and FW, the bacterial communities of healthy and TR4-infected rhizosphere and bulk soils were compared using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Soil physicochemical properties associated with FW were also analyzed. We found the community structure of bacteria in the healthy and TR4 infected rhizosphere was significantly different compared to bulk soil within the same farm. The rhizosphere soils of infected plants exhibited higher richness and diversity than healthy plant with significant abundance of Proteobacteria. In the healthy rhizosphere soil, beneficial bacteria such as Burkholderia and Streptomyces spp. were more abundant. Compared to the infected rhizosphere soil, healthy rhizosphere soil was associated with RNA metabolism and transporters pathways and a high level of magnesium and cation exchange capacity. Overall, we reported changes in the key taxa of rhizospheric bacterial communities and soil physicochemical properties of healthy and FW-infected plants, suggesting their potential role as indicators for plant health.
Highlights
The soil environment is a complex ecosystem that is primarily controlled by soil microbial communities
All the 20 samples were rarefied to the minimum number of sequences, and they were clustered into 7651 distinct bacterial Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs), representing a mean Good’s coverage of 0.994
This study demonstrated that the bacterial community composition and diversity differ between healthy and Fusarium wilt (FW)-infected soil, especially in the rhizosphere zone
Summary
The soil environment is a complex ecosystem that is primarily controlled by soil microbial communities. The composition, diversity, and function of the soil microbial communities are regulated by climate, cultivation methods, soil nutrients, pathogens, and farm management practices[1,2,3,4,5,6]. One of them is suppressing soil-borne diseases by stimulating phytohormones production, competing with soil-borne pathogens for nutrients, direct microbial competition, or activating microbiota-modulated immunity in plants[9,10] In this case, the rhizosphere is considered the first line of plant defense against soil-borne pathogens. In countries with tropical climates like Indonesia, Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia phyla were associated with healthy rhizosphere soil[25] Based on these findings, each study presented a unique soil bacterial composition that necessitated targeted and predictive biocontrol approaches to effectively prevent or control FW in different localities. More studies are needed to understand how soil attributes influence FW severity
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