Abstract
Camellia sinensis is an important economic plant grown in southern subtropical hilly areas, especially in China, mainly for the production of tea. Soil acidification is a significant cause of the reduction of yield and quality and continuous cropping obstacles in tea plants. Therefore, chemical and microbial properties of tea growing soils were investigated and phenolic acid-degrading bacteria were isolated from a tea plantation. Chemical and ICP-AES investigations showed that the soils tested were acidic, with pH values of 4.05–5.08, and the pH negatively correlated with K (p < 0.01), Al (p < 0.05), Fe and P. Aluminum was the highest (47–584 mg/kg) nonessential element. Based on high-throughput sequencing, a total of 34 phyla and 583 genera were identified in tea plantation soils. Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria were the main dominant phyla and the highest abundance of Acidobacteria was found in three soils, with nearly 22% for the genus Gp2. Based on the functional abundance values, general function predicts the highest abundance, while the abundance of amino acids and carbon transport and metabolism were higher in soils with pH less than 5. According to Biolog Eco Plate™ assay, the soil microorganisms utilized amino acids well, followed by polymers and phenolic acids. Three strains with good phenolic acid degradation rates were obtained, and they were identified as Bacillus thuringiensis B1, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens B2 and Bacillus subtilis B3, respectively. The three strains significantly relieved the inhibition of peanut germination and growth by ferulic acid, p-coumaric acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, cinnamic acid, and mixed acids. Combination of the three isolates showed reduced relief of the four phenolic acids due to the antagonist of B2 against B1 and B3. The three phenolic acid degradation strains isolated from acidic soils display potential in improving the acidification and imbalance in soils of C. sinensis.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Yuhan Zhang, upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Key Research and Development Project of Zhejiang (2021C02039, 2020C02030) Province, Shanxi (2019TSLSF02-01-01) Provinces, the Open Project of Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Agricultural Green Biomanufacturing Core Strain Improvement (2020KFKT09), and the Scientific Research Fund of Zhejiang Sci-tech University (20042221-Y) for funding.
Funding
This study was funded by the Key Research and Development Project of Zhejiang and Shanxi Provinces (2021C02039, 2020C02030, 2019TSLSF02-01-01), the Open Project of Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Agricultural Green Biomanufacturing Core Strain Improvement (2020KFKT09), and Scientific Research Fund of Zhejiang Sci-tech University (20042221-Y).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Yuhan Zhang, Binjie Wang, Guiwei Wang, Zhisheng Zheng, Ying Chen, and Ou Li. Yulong Peng provided technical support and Xiufang Hu provided fund support. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yuhan Zhang and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Zhang, Y., Wang, B., Wang, G. et al. Acidification induce chemical and microbial variation in tea plantation soils and bacterial degradation of the key acidifying phenolic acids. Arch Microbiol 206, 239 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-024-03858-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-024-03858-z