Abstract
Summary Soils and their microbiomes are now recognized as key components of plant health, but how to steer those microbiomes to obtain their beneficial functions is still unknown. Here, we assess whether plant–soil feedbacks can be applied in a crop system to shape soil microbiomes that suppress herbivorous insects in above‐ground tissues.We used four grass and four forb species to condition living soil. Then we inoculated those soil microbiomes into sterilized soil and grew chrysanthemum as a focal plant. We evaluated the soil microbiome in the inocula and after chrysanthemum growth, as well as plant and herbivore parameters.We show that inocula and inoculated soil in which a focal plant had grown harbor remarkably different microbiomes, with the focal plant exerting a strong negative effect on fungi, especially arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Soil inoculation consistently induced resistance against the thrips Frankliniella occidentalis, but not against the mite Tetranychus urticae, when compared with sterilized soil. Additionally, plant species shaped distinct microbiomes that had different effects on thrips, chlorogenic acid concentrations in leaves and plant growth.This study provides a proof‐of‐concept that the plant–soil feedback concept can be applied to steer soil microbiomes with the goal of inducing resistance above ground against herbivorous insects.
Highlights
Soils are crucial for terrestrial life (Wall et al, 2015)
Our first aim was to assess how the bacterial and fungal communities in the soil change compared with the inocula, once chrysanthemum grew in that soil
We detected that the community composition for both bacteria and fungi was most affected by whether they were from inocula or chrysanthemum soil, with stronger differences for bacteria than for fungi (PERMANOVA for fungi, F = 10.27, R2 = 0.15, P < 0.001; for bacteria, F = 63.79, R2 = 0.42, P < 0.001; Fig. 1)
Summary
The soil is where most terrestrial plants start their growth and, more than a simple substrate, is home to a diverse community of microbes Several of these microbes provide plants with key functions, such as enhanced growth via improved nutrition or suppression of soil pathogens (Pieterse et al, 2016; Raaijmakers & Mazzola, 2016). An exciting possibility is to manage soils to steer microbial communities to a desired beneficial state with a focus on promoting the presence and activity of beneficial microbes, instead of avoiding the pathogenic ones. Empirical evidence that this type of soil management can increase resistance in crops against above-ground herbivores is, still lacking (Pineda et al, 2017)
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