Abstract
Plant breeding reduces the genetic diversity of plants and could influence the composition, structure, and diversity of the rhizosphere microbiome, selecting more homogeneous and specialized microbes. In this study, we used 16S rRNA sequencing to assess the bacterial community in the rhizosphere of different lines and modern cowpea cultivars, to investigate the effect of cowpea breeding on bacterial community assembly. Thus, two African lines (IT85F-2687 and IT82D-60) and two Brazilian cultivars (BRS-Guariba and BRS-Tumucumaque) of cowpea were assessed to verify if the generation advance and genetic breeding influence the bacterial community in the rhizosphere. No significant differences were found in the structure, richness, and diversity of bacterial community structure between the rhizosphere of the different cowpea genotypes, and only slight differences were found at the OTU level. The complexity of the co-occurrence network decreased from African lines to Brazilian cultivars. Regarding functional prediction, the core functions were significantly altered according to the genotypes. In general, African lines presented a more abundance of groups related to chemoheterotrophy, while the rhizosphere of the modern cultivars decreased functions related to cellulolysis. This study showed that the genetic breeding process affects the dynamics of the rhizosphere community, decreasing the complexity of interaction in one cultivar. As these cowpea genotypes are genetically related, it could suggest a new hypothesis of how genetic breeding of similar genotypes could influence the rhizosphere microbiome.
Highlights
Plant breeding reduces the genetic diversity of plants and could influence the composition, structure, and diversity of the rhizosphere microbiome, selecting more homogeneous and specialized microbes
We identified that the two modern cultivars shared more operational taxonomic units (OTU) (33.6%) than the African lines (26.7%), revealing a higher similarity within the modern Brazilian cultivars
We assessed the bacterial community structure and composition inhabiting the rhizosphere of different cowpea genotypes to evaluate the effect of plant breeding on the microbial community
Summary
Plant breeding reduces the genetic diversity of plants and could influence the composition, structure, and diversity of the rhizosphere microbiome, selecting more homogeneous and specialized microbes. We used 16S rRNA sequencing to assess the bacterial community in the rhizosphere of different lines and modern cowpea cultivars, to investigate the effect of cowpea breeding on bacterial community assembly. Plant breeding is a process involving the changes in plant traits to obtain superior characteristics, such as biotic and abiotic stress tolerance and grain y ield[9] This process is usually done with the use of advancing generations and selection of lines with the obtention of modern cultivars[10]. Previous studies have reported that plant breeding and the advance of generation significantly impacted rhizosphere microbial communities and network a ssembly[7,13,14], promoting a homogenization and specialization of the bacterial community in the rhizosphere as influenced by the decreased genetic diversity[12,15,16].
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