Abstract
Purpose
Maize/soybean intercropping is a commonly employed agricultural technique with significant implications for enhancing crop productivity. However, the mechanisms by which rhizosphere soil microbial communities modulate genetic-level phosphorus (P) availability in maize/soybean intercropping systems in Northwest China remain unexplored.
Methods
The effects of maize/soybean intercropping on rhizosphere soil P availability and P cycling-related genes were evaluated using the biologically based P fractionation method and metagenomics.
Results
Soil organic carbon, total P, available P, and P activation coefficient improved in the maize/soybean intercropping. Further, the content of soil P fractions followed the order HCl-P > citrate-P > enzyme-P > CaCl2-P. The dominant soil microbial phyla were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Planctomycetes. The results of principal component analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling indicate that soil microbial composition differed among systems. The genes phoD, ppa, ppx, and pstC up-regulated in the intercropping, the results of random forest analysis indicate that these genes have the highest explanation for available P, suggesting that the improved P availability in the intercropping might be due to the up-regulation of these gene expressions. Redundant analysis indicated that pH and microbial biomass P significantly correlated with P fractions, suggesting they are essential factors in influencing P availability. Inorganic P solubilization, regulatory, and transporter genes were found to be associated with soil pH, total P, and alkaline phosphatase, suggesting they are the key factors that affect the expression of genes related to soil P cycling.
Conclusion
Maize/soybean intercropping can increase rhizosphere soil P availability. While there are associations between available P and microbial genes, it is important to note that soil properties play a more pivotal role than genes in determining soil P availability.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32001488), and the youth talent support program of Shihezi University (CXBJ202103).
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Zhibo Cheng, Wenmin Wang, Fating Yin, Jiacheng Gu, and Zhen Wang prepared the study idea and experiment design. All authors performed data collection and analysis. Wenmin Wang wrote the draft of the manuscript, and all authors were involved in subsequent revisions. All authors approved the final manuscript.
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Wang, W., Yin, F., Gu, J. et al. Effects of maize/soybean intercropping on rhizosphere soil phosphorus availability and functional genes involved in phosphorus cycling in Northwest China. Plant Soil (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06363-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06363-2