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Linking rhizospheric diazotrophs to the stimulation of soybean N2 fixation in a Mollisol amended with maize straw

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Abstract

Aims

Crop residue amendment is likely to stimulate symbiotic N2 fixation, and clarifying its effect on N2-fixing bacteria, i.e., diazotrophs in the rhizosphere of legume crops, is important for sustainable N management in legume-cereal cropping systems. Therefore, this study aimed to reveal the diazotrophic community composition in the rhizosphere of soybean in response to maize residue amendment.

Methods

Being designed with treatments of maize residue, chemical fertilizer, and non-fertilizer applications, this study deployed the 15N-labeling technology combined with high-throughput sequencing of the nifH gene as a molecular marker for diazotrophs to quantify the symbiotically-fixed N2 in soybean plants and link symbiotically fixed N2 to the diazotrophic community diversity in the rhizosphere.

Results

Residue amendment increased the abundance of diazotrophs and fundamentally altered the composition of its community in the rhizosphere. It increased the relative abundances of Bradyrhizobium and Azohydromonas compared to the chemical fertilizer treatment. The copy number of nifH in the rhizosphere was associated with dissolved organic carbon and N2 fixation.

Conclusions

Residue-induced increase in dissolved organic carbon may provide sufficient carbon sources for diazotroph enrichment and thus enhance nodulation. The maize residue amendment may enrich N2 fixers to facilitate nodulation and subsequent N2 fixation of soybean, highlighting the eco-functional importance of diazotrophs fixing extra N into the rotation system.

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Funding

The project was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41771326), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFD0300300), and the “Touyan” Program of Heilongjiang province and Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2019233).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Zhihuang Xie and Zhenhua Yu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Mollisols Agroecology, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin, 150081, China

    Zhihuang Xie, Zhenhua Yu, Yansheng Li, Guanghua Wang, Xiaobing Liu, Junjie Liu, Judong Liu & Jian Jin

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Zhihuang Xie

  3. Centre for AgriBioscience, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, Vic, 3086, Australia

    Caixian Tang & Jian Jin

  4. Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia

    Ulrike Mathesius

  5. Center for Agriculture, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Stephen J. Herbert

  6. Key Laboratory of Soybean Cultivation of Ministry of Agriculture, Soybean Research Institute, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, China

    Junjiang Wu

Authors
  1. Zhihuang Xie
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  2. Zhenhua Yu
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  3. Yansheng Li
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  4. Guanghua Wang
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  6. Ulrike Mathesius
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  7. Xiaobing Liu
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  8. Junjie Liu
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  9. Judong Liu
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  11. Junjiang Wu
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  12. Jian Jin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jian Jin.

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Xie, Z., Yu, Z., Li, Y. et al. Linking rhizospheric diazotrophs to the stimulation of soybean N2 fixation in a Mollisol amended with maize straw. Plant Soil 463, 279–289 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04904-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04904-1

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