Abstract
Soil microbes are a substantial component of soils and are essential for many soil functions and capability. Many recent studies have confirmed the beneficial root-microbe associations for soil and plant health, including root growth, fitness, and stress tolerance of plants under different soil conditions. Roots and rhizosphere microbial communities are in flux with the environment; as a result, root-microbe interactions shift in response to soil conditions. Some soil conditions like moisture stress (transient soil condition) and acidity and alkalinity (inherent soil conditions) are common constraints for many beneficial root-microbe interactions. For example, during drought, the plant microbiome is significantly altered in many crops, and plants may select unique microbes to improve drought tolerance. Studies have shown that the phylogenetic and the physiological adaptations by some microbes in response to moisture stress can benefit plants. Soil constraints such as subsoil acidity and aluminum or salt toxicity can be detrimental to some plant-beneficial microbes like mycorrhizae. As a result, novel root-microbe interactions do occur most likely in subsoil, which may be critical for improving root fitness and soil health in the subsoil. There are opportunities to improve the root-microbe interactions through diversification of cropping systems and sustainable management practices. Further research is needed to clearly outline beneficial root-microbe interactions in response to soil conditions and fill knowledge gaps to effectively integrate belowground interactions with soil and crop management.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Berendsen RL, Pieterse CM, Bakker PA (2012) The rhizosphere microbiome and plant health. Trends Plant Sci 17:478–486
Borie F, Rubio R (1999) Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizae and liming on growth and mineral acquisition of aluminum‐tolerant and aluminum‐sensitive barley cultivars. J Plant Nutr 22:121–137
Eilers KG, Debenport S, Anderson S, Fierer N (2012) Digging deeper to find unique microbial communities: the strong effect of depth on the structure of bacterial and archaeal communities in soil. Soil Biol Biochem 50:58–65
Ferreira PAA, Bomfeti CA, Soares BL, de Souza Moreira FM (2012) Efficient nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium strains isolated from amazonian soils are highly tolerant to acidity and aluminium. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 28:1947–1959
Galloway JN, Townsend AR, Erisman JW, Bekunda M, Cai Z, Freney JR, Martinelli LA, Seitzinger SP, Sutton MA (2008) Transformation of the nitrogen cycle: recent trends, questions, and potential solutions. Science 320:889–892
Hamel R, Appanna VD (2003) Aluminum detoxification in Pseudomonas fluorescens is mediated by oxalate and phosphatidylethanolamine. Biochimi Biophys Acta (BBA)-Gen Subj 1619:70–76
Hartmann M, Lee S, Hallam SJ, Mohn WW (2009) Bacterial, archaeal and eukaryal community structures throughout soil horizons of harvested and naturally disturbed forest stands. Environ Microbiol 11:3045–3062
Heckman K, Welty-Bernard A, Rasmussen C, Schwartz E (2009) Geologic controls of soil carbon cycling and microbial dynamics in temperate conifer forests. Chem Geol 267:12–23
Higo M, Isobe K, Yamaguchi M, Drijber RA, Jeske ES, Ishii R (2013) Diversity and vertical distribution of indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi under two soybean rotational systems. Biol Fertil Soils 49:1085–1096
Jansa J, Mozafar A, Frossard E (2003) Long-distance transport of P and Zn through the hyphae of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus in symbiosis with maize. Agron-Sci Prod Veg l’Environ 23:481–488
Kelly C, Morton J, Cumming J (2005) Variation in aluminum resistance among arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Mycorrhiza 15:193–201
Kniskern JM, Traw MB, Bergelson J (2007) Salicylic acid and jasmonic acid signaling defense pathways reduce natural bacterial diversity on Arabidopsis thaliana. Mol Plant Microbe Interact 20:1512–1522
Koele N, Turpault M-P, Hildebrand EE, Uroz S, Frey-Klett P (2009) Interactions between mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhizosphere bacteria during mineral weathering: budget analysis and bacterial quantification. Soil Biol Biochem 41:1935–1942
Krill AM, Kirst M, Kochian LV, Buckler ES, Hoekenga OA (2010) Association and linkage analysis of aluminum tolerance genes in maize. PLoS One 5:e9958
Lynch JP (2013) Steep, cheap and deep: an ideotype to optimize water and N acquisition by maize root systems. Ann Bot. doi:10.1093/aob/mcs293
Lynch JP, Wojciechowski T (2015) Opportunities and challenges in the subsoil: pathways to deeper rooted crops. J Exp Bot. doi:10.1093/jxb/eru508
Martins M, Taborda R, Silva G, Assunção A, Matos AP, Costa MC (2012) Aluminum and sulphate removal by a highly Al-resistant dissimilatory sulphate-reducing bacteria community. Biodegradation 23:693–703
McCarthy AJ, Williams ST (1992) Actinomycetes as agents of biodegradation in the environment—a review. Gene 115:189–192
Richter DD, Markewitz D (1995) How deep is soil? Bioscience 45:600–609
Rout ME, Southworth D (2013) The root microbiome influences scales from molecules to ecosystems: the unseen majority1. Am J Bot 100:1689–1691
Seguel A, Cumming JR, Klugh-Stewart K, Cornejo P, Borie F (2013) The role of arbuscular mycorrhizas in decreasing aluminium phytotoxicity in acidic soils: a review. Mycorrhiza 23:167–183
Snapp SS, Swinton SM, Labarta R, Mutch D, Black JR, Leep R, Nyiraneza J, O’Neil K (2005) Evaluating cover crops for benefits, costs and performance within cropping system niches. Agron J 97:322–332
Somenahally AC, Leonard AL (2015) Root-microbe interactions in subsoil conditions to be published
Somenahally AC, Hollister EB, Yan W, Gentry TJ, Loeppert RH (2011) Water management impacts on arsenic speciation and iron-reducing bacteria in contrasting rice-rhizosphere compartments. Environ Sci Technol 45:8328–8335
Somenahally AC, Yan W, Gentry TJ, Loeppert RH (2015) Diversity of arsenic cycling bacterial functional genes in rice rhizosphere compartments under cultivation practices to be published
Spence C, Alff E, Johnson C, Ramos C, Donofrio N, Sundaresan V, Bais H (2014) Natural rice rhizospheric microbes suppress rice blast infections. BMC Plant Biol 14:130
Stone MM, DeForest JL, Plante AF (2014) Changes in extracellular enzyme activity and microbial community structure with soil depth at the Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory. Soil Biol Biochem 75:237–247
Sumner ME (1999) Handbook of soil science. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Uroz S, Ioannidis P, Lengelle J, Cébron A, Morin E, Buée M, Martin F (2013) Functional assays and metagenomic analyses reveals differences between the microbial communities inhabiting the soil horizons of a Norway spruce plantation. PLoS One 8:e55929
Vranova V, Rejsek K, Skene KR, Janous D, Formanek P (2013) Methods of collection of plant root exudates in relation to plant metabolism and purpose: a review. J Plant Nutr Soil Sci 176:175–199
White CM, Weil RR (2010) Forage radish and cereal rye cover crop effects on mycorrhizal fungus colonization of maize roots. Plant Soil 328:507–521
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Somenahally, A. (2017). Root-Microbe Interactions in Response to Soil Conditions. In: Field, D.J., Morgan, C.L.S., McBratney, A.B. (eds) Global Soil Security. Progress in Soil Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43394-3_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43394-3_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43393-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43394-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)