Response of Physicochemical Properties and Enzyme Activities in Rhizosphere Soil to Yellow Leaf Curl Virus Disease of Cherry Tomato (<i>Lycopersicon esulentum </i>Mill.)

Abstract

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus disease (TYLCVD) has become a devastating disease, which seriously threatens the healthy development of tomato industry in China. Creating a healthy soil environment may be the key to success in preventing TYLCVD. Field investigation and laboratory analysis were used to evaluate the response characteristics of macro elements, medium elements, micro elements and enzyme activities in the rhizosphere soil of cherry tomato to TYLCVD. The main objective of this study was to determine the suitable soil environment for the healthy survival of cherry tomato. Soil samples were collected from rhizosphere of healthy and diseased plants. The results showed that the occurrence of TYLCVD was related to the enzyme activities, pH value, macro elements N, P, K, medium elements Ca, Mg, S and micro elements Mn, Zn, Cu, Si in the rhizosphere soil of cherry tomato. Compared with healthy plants, the activities of urease, catalase and acid phosphatase were significantly decreased by 48.6%–77.4%, 23.7%–43.8% and 19.1%–31.0%, respectively, in rhizosphere soil of diseased cherry tomato plants (<I>P</I> < 0.05). The pH value, contents of alkaline hydrolysis N, available Mg, available S, available Mn, available Zn, available Cu and available Si in rhizosphere soil of diseased plants were significantly lower than those in healthy plants (<I>P</I> < 0.05). The pH value in rhizosphere soil of diseased plants was 0.18-0.25 units lower than that of healthy plants. And the contents of alkaline hydrolysis N, available Mg, available S, available Mn, available Zn, available Cu and available Si were reduced by 5.54%–20.0%, 29.7%–73.9%, 27.3%–48.8%, 6.95%–10.1%, 13.6%–-15.2%, 10.6%–25.0% and 4.97%-8.30%, respectively. However, the contents of available P, available K and available Ca in rhizosphere soil of diseased plants were significantly higher than those in healthy plants (<I>P</I> < 0.05), were increased by 3.77%–41.2%, 6.75%–37.4% and 16.7%–50.5%, respectively. Our findings improve our understanding of the links between the occurrence of TYLCVD and the soil environment, which have implications for developing strategies for the prevention of tomato yellow leaf curl virus disease.