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Composition and activity of rhizosphere microbial communities associated with healthy and diseased greenhouse tomatoes

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Abstract

Aims

The goal of this study was to investigate the structure and functional potential of microbial communities associated with healthy and diseased tomato rhizospheres.

Methods

Composition changes in the bacterial communities inhabiting the rhizospheric soil and roots of tomato plants were detected using 454 pyrosequencing. Microbial functional diversity was investigated with BIOLOG technology.

Results

There were significant shifts in the microbial composition of diseased samples compared with healthy samples, which had the highest bacterial diversity. The predominant phylum in both diseased and healthy samples was Proteobacteria, which accounted for 35.7–97.4 % of species. The class Gammaproteobacteria was more abundant in healthy than in diseased samples, while the Alphaproteobacteria and Betaproteobacteria were more abundant in diseased samples. The proportions of pathogenic Ralstonia solanacearum and Actinobacteria species were also elevated in diseased samples. The proportions of the various bacterial populations showed a similar trend both in rhizosphere soil and plant roots in diseased versus disease-free samples, indicating that pathogen infection altered the composition of bacterial communities in both plant and soil samples. In terms of microbial activity, functional diversity was suppressed in diseased soil samples. Soil enzyme activity, including urease, alkaline phosphatase and catalase activity, also declined.

Conclusions

This is the first report that provides evidence that R. solanacearum infection elicits shifts in the composition and functional potential of microbial communities in a continuous-cropping tomato operation.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by national natural science foundation of China (41201241), China postdoctoral science foundation (2013 M531412), and innovation key program of the Chinese academy of sciences (KSCX-EW-B-6).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, NO.71 East Beijing Road, Nanjing, 210008, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Jian-Gang Li & Yuan-Hua Dong

  2. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Gai-Di Ren & Zhong-Jun Jia

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

    Gai-Di Ren

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  1. Jian-Gang Li
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  2. Gai-Di Ren
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  4. Yuan-Hua Dong
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Correspondence to Yuan-Hua Dong.

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Responsible Editor: Simon Jeffery.

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Li, JG., Ren, GD., Jia, ZJ. et al. Composition and activity of rhizosphere microbial communities associated with healthy and diseased greenhouse tomatoes. Plant Soil 380, 337–347 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2097-6

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