Analysis of the composition and function of rhizosphere microbial communities in plants with tobacco bacterial wilt disease and healthy plants

Abstract

ABSTRACT To explore the factors influencing the occurrence of bacterial wilt, the differences in the physicochemical properties, microbial community composition and function between rhizosphere soil of tobacco plants with bacterial wilt and healthy plants in the tobacco planting area of Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province were analyzed and compared. The results showed that the rhizosphere soil of diseased tobacco exhibited significantly reduced levels of exchangeable potassium, water-soluble potassium, nitrate nitrogen, total nitrogen and pH, in comparison to the rhizosphere soil of healthy plants. Conversely, the available phosphorus content of the rhizosphere soil of diseased tobacco was significantly increased. The amount of Ralstonia solanacearum in soil was negatively correlated with pH, nitrate nitrogen and total nitrogen, and positively correlated with exchangeable potassium and water-soluble potassium. A total of 43 genera were significantly different between the two groups of rhizosphere soil, of which 24 genera were enriched in the rhizosphere of healthy plants, including Ideonella, Rhizophagus, Rhizobacter, Altererythrobacter and Ignavibacterium associated with plant disease resistance, Thermodesulfovibrio, Syntrophorhabdus, Syntrophus, Chlorobium, Hydrogenophaga and Limnohabitans associated with soil sulfur metabolism, as well as Ignavibacterium, Ideonella, Derxia and Azohydromonas associated with soil nitrogen cycling. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes functional analysis of the unigenes obtained by metagenomic sequencing also showed that the differential unigenes were significantly enriched in the sulfur metabolism pathway. In addition, the rhizosphere soil of diseased tobacco plants exhibited a higher abundance of antibiotic-producing actinomycetes and an increased load of antibiotic resistance genes compared to that of healthy plants. In general, lower pH value, less content of nitrate nitrogen and total nitrogen, and more content of exchangeable potassium and water-soluble potassium could contribute to onset of bacterial wilt. Twenty-four genera, including Ideonella and Rhizophagus, may construct a healthy microecological network in the rhizosphere of tobacco plants. All these factors may interact with each other to control the development of bacterial wilt. This complicated interaction network needs to be explored further.IMPORTANCEPrevious studies have mainly focused on the differences in microbial species composition between healthy and diseased soils, but the differences in microbial community functions between two types of soil have not been well characterized. In this study, soil samples in diseased and healthy plant rhizospheres were collected for physicochemical property testing and metagenomic sequencing. We focused on analyzing the differences in physicochemical properties and microbial community functions between these soils, as well as the correlation between these factors and pathogen content. The results of this study provide a theoretical basis for further understanding the occurrence of tobacco bacterial wilt in the field.

Keywords

• tobacco bacterial wilt
• physicochemical properties
• rhizosphere microbial community composition and function
• metagenomic