Bacterial Diversity and Community Structure in Korean Ginseng Field Soil Are Shifted by Cultivation Time

PLoS One. 2016 May 17;11(5):e0155055. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155055. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Traditional molecular methods have been used to examine bacterial communities in ginseng-cultivated soil samples in a time-dependent manner. Despite these efforts, our understanding of the bacterial community is still inadequate. Therefore, in this study, a high-throughput sequencing approach was employed to investigate bacterial diversity in various ginseng field soil samples over cultivation times of 2, 4, and 6 years in the first and second rounds of cultivation. We used non-cultivated soil samples to perform a comparative study. Moreover, this study assessed changes in the bacterial community associated with soil depth and the health state of the ginseng. Bacterial richness decreased through years of cultivation. This study detected differences in relative abundance of bacterial populations between the first and second rounds of cultivation, years of cultivation, and health states of ginseng. These bacterial populations were mainly distributed in the classes Acidobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Sphingobacteria. In addition, we found that pH, available phosphorus, and exchangeable Ca+ seemed to have high correlations with bacterial class in ginseng cultivated soil.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture
  • Bacteria / classification*
  • Bacteria / genetics
  • Biodiversity*
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Ecosystem
  • Evolution, Molecular
  • Panax* / growth & development
  • Phylogeny
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
  • Republic of Korea
  • Soil / chemistry
  • Soil Microbiology*
  • Time Factors

Substances

  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
  • Soil

Grants and funding

This research was supported by a grant #313038-03-2-S13020 from the Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology (IPET) in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of Korea and also supported by grants #01116602 and #PJ0120342016 from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program, Systems & Synthetic Agrobiotech Center (SSAC), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.