Crop rotation and native microbiome inoculation restore soil capacity to suppress a root disease

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 8126
• Main Authors: Zhou, Yanyan, Yang, Zhen, Liu, Jinguang, Li, Xudong, Wang, Xingxiang, Dai, Chuanchao, Zhang, Taolin, Carrión, Víctor J., Wei, Zhong, Cao, Fuliang, Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel, Li, Xiaogang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 08-12-2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 45/77; 49/23; 49/91; 631/158/2456; 631/158/855; 631/326/171/1818; Agricultural practices; Continuous cropping; Crop diseases; Crop rotation; Crops; Depletion; Exudates; Exudation; Humanities and Social Sciences; Inoculation; Microbiomes; Microorganisms; Monoculture; multidisciplinary; Pathogens; Plant diseases; Rhizosphere; Root rot; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Soil microorganisms; Soils
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43926-4

It is widely known that some soils have strong levels of disease suppression and prevent the establishment of pathogens in the rhizosphere of plants. However, what soils are better suppressing disease, and how management can help us to boost disease suppression remain unclear. Here, we used field, greenhouse and laboratory experiments to investigate the effect of management (monocropping and rotation) on the capacity of rhizosphere microbiomes in suppressing peanut root rot disease. Compared with crop rotations, monocropping resulted in microbial assemblies that were less effective in suppressing root rot diseases. Further, the depletion of key rhizosphere taxa in monocropping, which were at a disadvantage in the competition for limited exudates resources, reduced capacity to protect plants against pathogen invasion. However, the supplementation of depleted strains restored rhizosphere resistance to pathogen. Taken together, our findings highlight the role of native soil microbes in fighting disease and supporting plant health, and indicate the potential of using microbial inocula to regenerate the natural capacity of soil to fight disease.
Crop rotation helps preventing pathogen infestations compared to monocultures, which may be partly due to root-associated microbes. Here, the authors show that rhizosphere microbiomes in monocultures are less able to suppress fungal pathogens compared to crop rotations, and that inoculating certain microbes can mitigate it.