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Pyrosequencing Reveals Contrasting Soil Bacterial Diversity and Community Structure of Two Main Winter Wheat Cropping Systems in China

  • Soil Microbiology
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Abstract

Microbes are key components of the soil environment, playing an important role in maintaining soil health, sustainability, and productivity. The composition and structure of soil bacterial communities were examined in winter wheat–rice (WR) and winter wheat–maize (WM) cropping systems derived from five locations in the Low-Middle Yangtze River plain and the Huang-Huai-Hai plain by pyrosequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicons. A total of 102,367 high quality sequences were used for multivariate statistical analysis and to test for correlation between community structure and environmental variables such as crop rotations, soil properties, and locations. The most abundant phyla across all soil samples were Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. Similar patterns of bacterial diversity and community structure were observed within the same cropping systems, and a higher relative abundance of anaerobic bacteria was found in WR compared to WM cropping systems. Variance partitioning analysis revealed complex relationships between bacterial community and environmental variables. The effect of crop rotations was low but significant, and interactions among soil properties, locations, and crop rotations accounted for most of the explained variation in the structure of bacterial communities. Soil properties such as pH, available P, and available K showed higher correlations (positive or negative) with the majority of the abundant taxa. Bacterial diversity (the Shannon index) and richness (Chao1 and ACE) were higher under WR than WM cropping systems.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (2013AA102802 and 2011BAD11B03) and the Agricultural Ministry of China (201103004 and 2011-G27). R.Z and Q.S were also supported by the 111 Project (B12009) and the Priority Academic Program Development (PAPD) of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions. We would like to thank Dr. Xiaoyu Yong, Nanjing University of Technology, and Joshua Kendall, Ohio State University, for their careful comments on this manuscript and Dr. Benli Chai of Michigan State University for his help submitting the data. We also thank Majorbio Bio-pharm Technology Co., Ltd (Shanghai, China) for their help with the pyrosequencing experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilization in Low-Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Jun Zhao, Ruifu Zhang, Chao Xue, Weibing Xun, Li Sun, Yangchun Xu & Qirong Shen

  2. Jiangsu Key Lab and Engineering Center for Solid Organic Waste Utilization, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Jun Zhao, Ruifu Zhang, Chao Xue, Weibing Xun, Li Sun, Yangchun Xu & Qirong Shen

  3. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Ruifu Zhang, Yangchun Xu & Qirong Shen

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  1. Jun Zhao
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  2. Ruifu Zhang
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  3. Chao Xue
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  4. Weibing Xun
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  5. Li Sun
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  7. Qirong Shen
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Correspondence to Qirong Shen.

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J. Zhao and R. Zhang contributed equally to this paper.

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Zhao, J., Zhang, R., Xue, C. et al. Pyrosequencing Reveals Contrasting Soil Bacterial Diversity and Community Structure of Two Main Winter Wheat Cropping Systems in China. Microb Ecol 67, 443–453 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-013-0322-0

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