Rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities during the growth of Angelica sinensis seedlings cultivated in an Alpine uncultivated meadow soil

Zhigang An; Fengxia Guo; Yuan Chen; Gang Bai; Zhengjun Chen

doi:10.7717/peerj.8541

Rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities during the growth of Angelica sinensis seedlings cultivated in an Alpine uncultivated meadow soil

PeerJ. 2020 Mar 26:8:e8541. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8541. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Zhigang An^{1

2}, Fengxia Guo¹, Yuan Chen^{1

3}, Gang Bai¹, Zhengjun Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Life Science and Technology, College of Agronomy, Gansu Provincial Key Lab of Good Agricultural Production for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Gansu Provincial Engineering Research Centre for Medical Plant Cultivation and Breeding, Provincial Key Lab of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, China.
² Pharmacy Department, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Dingxi, China.
³ Gansu Engineering Lab of Resource Reservation and Utilization for Characteristic Chinese Medicine, Gansu Tasly Zhongtian Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Dingxi, China.

Abstract

Background: Angelica sinensis seedlings are grown in alpine uncultivated meadow soil with rainfed agroecosystems to ensure the quality of A. sinensis after seedling transplantation. The aim was to investigate the rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities during the growth stages of A. sinensis seedlings.

Methods: The bacterial and fungal communities were investigated by HiSeq sequencing of 16S and 18S rDNA, respectively.

Results: Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were bacterial dominant phyla throughout growth stages. Fungal dominant phyla varied with growth stages, dominant phyla Ascomycota and Chytridiomycota in AM5, dominant phyla Basidiomycota, Ascomycota and Zygomycota in BM5, and dominant phyla Basidiomycota and Ascomycota in CM5. There was no significant variation in the alpha-diversity of the bacterial and fungal communities, but significant variation was in the beta-diversity. We found that the variation of microbial community composition was accompanied by the changes in community function. The relative abundance of fungal pathogens increased with plant growth. We also identified the core microbes, significant-changing microbes, stage-specific microbes, and host-specific microbes. Plant weight, root length, root diameter, soil pH, rainfall, and climate temperature were the key divers to microbial community composition.

Conclusions: Our findings reported the variation and environmental drivers of rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities during the growth of A. sinensis seedlings, which enhance the understanding of the rhizosphere microbial community in this habitat.

Keywords: Angelica sinensis; Bacteria; Community function; Diversity; Fungi; Rhizosphere; Seedlings.

Grants and funding

The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31560175 and 31360317), Provincial college students innovation training (201810733232), the Scientific Research Projects of Higher School in Gansu Province (2017A-033), the SRTP of GAU (20150802, 20160802, 20170924), the Chief Expert (Y Chen) of Modern Agricultural Traditional Chinese Medicine Industry System in Gansu Province (GARS-ZYC-1), and the National Standardization Project of Traditional Chinese Medicine of China (ZYBZH-Y-GS-11). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.