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Effect of anaerobic soil disinfestation on the bacterial community and key soilborne phytopathogenic agents under walnut tree-crop nursery conditions

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Abstract

Background and aims

Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation (ASD) is a chemical-independent approach to managing soilborne phytopathogens. While it has been demonstrated that ASD can suppress phytopathogens in vegetable cropping systems, it has not been examined for control of tree-crop diseases under nursery conditions. Here we report on the potential of using ASD to manage soilborne populations of Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Pythium ultimum under walnut rootstock nursery conditions and compared the efficacy of ASD with the chemical fumigant Telone-C35.

Methods

Mesh bags of sterile field soil inoculated with either A. tumefaciens or P. ultimum were buried in the first of two trials at 7.6 and 15.2 cm soil depths and in the second trial at 15.2, 45.7, and 76.2 cm soil depths prior to ASD or fumigation treatments. Populations of A. tumefaciens and P. ultimum in the mesh bags were determined immediately after ASD treatment. Bacterial rRNA was extracted from bulk soils at these depths prior, immediately following ASD, and 4 months post-ASD to determine the effect of ASD on the bacterial community composition.

Results and conclusions

After seven days of ASD treatment, populations of both phytopathogens fell below detection limits at 7.6 and 15.2 cm soil depths. After completion of the six-week ASD treatment or 4-week fumigation period, populations of A. tumefaciens remained below detection limits at 7.6 and 15.2 cm depths and were not significantly different from A. tumefaciens population levels detected in the fumigation treatment. Futhermore, A. tumefaciens populations were significantly reduced, compared to no-treatment control soils, in both ASD and fumigation treatments at the 45.7 and 76.2 cm depths. Pythium ultimum populations dipped below detection limits after ASD treatment at 7.6 and 15.2 cm soil depths, and were significantly lower than no-treatment controls at the 45.7 cm depth. The bacterial community composition of ASD-treated soils also differed significantly as a function of soil depth, and the effect of ASD on the bacterial community composition persisted over time. The documented ASD-induced changes in the soilborne bacterial communities may have contributed to the population reductions observed for both A. tumefaciens and P. ultimum. The significant reductions of A. tumefaciens and P. ultimum, down to a depth of 76.2 cm, were similar for both ASD and Telone C-35 treated soils. This illustrates the potential of ASD to replace chemical fumigants as a management tool for key phytopathogenic agents.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Tri-Cal for performing soil fumigation and Chuck Boldwyn, Dale Pattigan, and Rodolfo Cisneros at the University of California Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center for field use, support, and management. We also thank Sebastian Albu for a critical review of this manuscript. This work was funded by the CDFA Fruit Tree, Nut Tree, and Grapevine Improvement Advisory Board and USDA-ARS CRIS 2032-22000-015-00D.

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  1. S.L. Strauss

    Present address: Southwest Florida Research and Education Center, University of Florida, 2685 State Rd. 29 N, Immokalee, FL, 34142, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA-ARS Crops Pathology and Genetics Research Unit, University of California, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    S.L. Strauss, R.F. Greenhut, A.E. McClean & D.A. Kluepfel

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  3. A.E. McClean
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Supplemental Fig 1

Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) based on the Bray-Curtis distance matrix between soil samples collected at 15.2, 45.7, and 76.2 cm depths from pre-ASD, post-treatment, and 4 months-post treatment. Each treatment had n = 5 (GIF 36 kb)

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Table S1

Treatment differences in community composition Bray-Curtis distance matrix determined using the non-parametric multivariate analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) with 999 permutations. Values are p-values between each treatment and depth. (DOCX 123 kb)

Table S2

Percentage of significantly different bacterial phyla between treatments, time, and soil depths. Differences in taxa abundance were determined on rarefied arc sin square-root transformed data using ANOVA analysis. FDR-corrected p-value <0.1 was considered significant. (DOCX 109 kb)

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Strauss, S., Greenhut, R., McClean, A. et al. Effect of anaerobic soil disinfestation on the bacterial community and key soilborne phytopathogenic agents under walnut tree-crop nursery conditions. Plant Soil 415, 493–506 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-016-3126-4

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