Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Davis, California » Crops Pathology and Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #368860
Research Project: Integrated Disease Management Strategies for Woody Perennial Species

Location: Crops Pathology and Genetics Research

Title: Temporal responses of microbial communities to anaerobic soil disinfestation

Author
item Poret-Peterson, Amisha
item SAYED , NADA - Uc Davis Medical Center
item GLYZEWSKI, NATHANIEL - Green Leaf Lab
item Forbes, Holly
item GONZALEZ-ORTA, ENID - California State University
item Kluepfel, Daniel

Submitted to: Microbial Ecology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/16/2019
Publication Date: 12/23/2019
Citation: Poret-Peterson, A.T., Sayed , N., Glyzewski, N., Forbes, H., Gonzalez-Orta, E., Kluepfel, D.A. 2019. Temporal responses of microbial communities to anaerobic soil disinfestation. Microbial Ecology. 80:191-201. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-019-01477-6.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-019-01477-6

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) is an organic amendment based management tool for controlling soil-borne plant diseases and is increasingly used in a variety of crops. ASD results in a marked decrease in soil redox potential and other physicochemical changes, and a turnover in the composition of the soil microbiome. Mechanisms of ASD-mediated pathogen control are not fully understood, but appear to depend on the carbon source used to initiate the process and involve a combination of biological (i.e., release of volatile organic compounds) and abiotic (i.e., lowered pH, release of metal ions) factors. In this study, we examined how the soil microbiome changes over time in response to ASD initiated with rice bran, tomato pomace, or red grape pomace as amendments using growth chamber mesocosms that replicate ASD-induced field soil redox conditions. Within two days, the soil microbiome rapidly shifted from a diverse assemblage of taxa to being dominated by members of the Firmicutes for all ASD treatments, whereas control mesocosms maintained diverse and more evenly distributed communities. Rice bran and tomato pomace amendments resulted in microbial communities with similar compositions and trajectories that were different from red grape pomace communities. Quantitative PCR showed nitrogenase gene abundances were higher in ASD communities and tended to increase over time, suggesting the potential for altering soil nitrogen availability. These results highlight the need for temporal and functional studies to understand how pathogen suppressive microbial communities assemble and function in ASD-treated soils.