RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Nitrogen Fertilisers Shape the Composition and Predicted Functions of the Microbiota of Field-Grown Tomato Plants
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 672162
DO 10.1101/672162
A1 Federica Caradonia
A1 Domenico Ronga
A1 Marcello Catellani
A1 Cleber Vinícius Giaretta Azevedo
A1 Rodrigo Alegria Terrazas
A1 Senga Robertson-Albertyn
A1 Enrico Francia
A1 Davide Bulgarelli
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/08/10/672162.abstract
AB The microbial communities thriving at the root-soil interface have the potential to improve plant growth and sustainable crop production. Yet, how agricultural practices, such as the application of either mineral or organic nitrogen fertilisers, impact on the composition and functions of these communities remains to be fully elucidated. By deploying a two-pronged 16S rRNA gene sequencing and predictive metagenomics approach we demonstrated that the bacterial microbiota of field-grown tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants is the product of a selective process that progressively differentiates between rhizosphere and root microhabitats. This process initiates as early as plants are in a nursery stage and it is then more marked at late developmental stages, in particular at harvest. This selection acts on both the bacterial relative abundances and phylogenetic assignments, with a bias for the enrichment of members of the phylum Actinobacteria in the root compartment. Digestate-based and mineral-based nitrogen fertilisers trigger a distinct bacterial enrichment in both rhizosphere and root microhabitats. This compositional diversification mirrors a predicted functional diversification of the root-inhabiting communities, manifested predominantly by the differential enrichment of genes associated to ABC transporters and the two-component system. Together, our data suggest that the microbiota thriving at the tomato root-soil interface is modulated by and in responses to the type of nitrogen fertiliser applied to the field.