Variation in rhizosphere microbial communities and its association with the nodulation ability of peanut

Abstract

ABSTRACT Harnessing the rhizobia-legume symbiosis is a promising strategy to confront sustainability in agriculture. Agricultural research on legume nodulation has mostly focused on abiotic parameters, yet the importance of biotic variables on legumes nodulation is still ambiguous. We explored the variation of bacterial communities in peanut rhizosphere soil under different agricultural practices (peanut fallow rotation and Vicia villosa Roth-peanut rotation) using Illumina sequencing. Samples were collected in 2020 from a 9-year study (2012–2020) located at Dongxiang countryside (Jiangxi province, China). Compared with peanut fallow rotation (PFR), Vicia villosa Roth-peanut rotation (VPR) significantly (p< 0.05) decreased soil pH (by 0.4–3.9%) and number of peanut nodules (by 20–63.7%). By using the Random forest tool, we found that the difference in peanut nodulation was associated with specific microbiome alterations. The indicator taxa positively responded to the peanut nodulation was enriched in the PFR practice, while VPR led to increased abundance of indicator taxa which negatively responded to peanut nodulation. The path analysis indicated that soil pH has an indirect effect on peanut nodulation through its link with the abundance of indicator taxa. Our work provides evidence that the variation in peanut rhizosphere microbial communities was associated with peanut nodulation.