The team from the Plant Nutrition Group of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, recently revealed the assembly strategy of maize rhizosphere microbial communities based on functional requirements under nutrient stress. The related findings were published in New Phytologist.
Crop nutrient utilization efficiency can be effectively improved by regulating the structure and function of rhizosphere microbial communities. However, the assembly strategy of rhizosphere microbial communities under different soil types and nutrient levels remains unclear, limiting their widespread application in agricultural production.
The study found that host selection, soil type, and fertilization treatments collectively shape the structure and function of maize rhizosphere microbial communities. Under long-term unfertilized conditions, to adapt to nutrient stress environments, maize recruited more rhizosphere microbes involved in carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus cycling, and purine metabolism from the soil, especially some key nitrogen-fixing microbes.
Maize recruits different beneficial functional microbes in different soils. Further research confirmed that maize adopts a rhizosphere microbial assembly strategy based on functional requirements. This study provides theoretical support for targeted manipulation and efficient utilization of rhizosphere microbial communities.
The study was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and other projects.
Related paper information: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19653
