Disease-induced changes in the rhizosphere microbiome reduced root disease

Abstract

Rhizosphere microbiota, referred to as the second genome of plants, are crucial to plant health. Increasing evidence reveals that plants can change their rhizosphere microbiome and promote microbial activity to reduce plant disease. However, how plant and phytopathogens factor in combination to structure the rhizosphere microbiome and govern microbial selection for adaptation to disease stress remains incompletely understood. In this study, rhizosphere microbiota from successive wheat plantings under the pressure of the soilborne pathogen Rhizoctonia solani AG8 were characterized. Amplicon sequence analyses revealed that bacterial and fungal communities clustered by planting cycles. The addition of AG8 enhanced the separation of the rhizosphere microbiota. The alpha diversity of bacteria and fungi significantly decreased over planting cycles. Compared with rhizosphere bacterial communities, AG8 was a major driver structuring fungal communities. Pathogen-infected monocultures enriched a group of bacterial genera with potential antagonistic activities or abilities for plant growth promotion or nitrogen fixation. Further, eleven bacterial species exhibited antagonistic activities toward Rhizoctonia spp., and four of them displayed broad antagonism against multiple soilborne fungal pathogens. These findings support the potential to improve plant health through manipulating rhizosphere microbiota.