RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Plant secondary metabolite-dependent plant-soil feedbacks can improve crop yield in the field
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.11.09.515047
DO 10.1101/2022.11.09.515047
A1 Gfeller, Valentin
A1 Waelchli, Jan
A1 Pfister, Stephanie
A1 Deslandes-Hérold, Gabriel
A1 Mascher, Fabio
A1 Glauser, Gaétan
A1 Aeby, Yvo
A1 Mestrot, Adrien
A1 Robert, Christelle A.M.
A1 Schlaeppi, Klaus
A1 Erb, Matthias
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/11/10/2022.11.09.515047.abstract
AB Plant secondary metabolites that are released into the rhizosphere alter biotic and abiotic soil properties, which in turn affect the performance of other plants. How such plant-soil feedbacks affect agricultural productivity and food quality in crop rotations is unknown. Here, we assessed the impact of maize benzoxazinoids on the performance, yield and food quality of three winter wheat varieties in a two-year field experiment. Following maize cultivation, we detected benzoxazinoid-dependent chemical and microbial fingerprints in the soil. The chemical fingerprint was still visible during wheat growth, while the microbial fingerprint was no longer detected. Benzoxazinoid soil conditioning by wild-type maize led to increased wheat emergence, tillering, growth and biomass compared to soil conditioning by bx1 mutant plants. Weed cover remained unaffected, while insect damage decreased in a subset of varieties. Wheat yield was increased by over 4% without a reduction in grain quality across varieties. This improvement was directly associated with increased germination and tillering. Taken together, our experiments demonstrate that plant secondary metabolites can increase yield via plant-soil feedbacks under agronomically realistic conditions. If this phenomenon holds across different soils and environmental conditions, optimizing plant root exudation could be a powerful, genetically tractable strategy to enhance crop yields without additional inputs.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.