Endophytic Fungus Alleviates Soil Sickness in Peanut Crops by Improving the Carbon Metabolism and Rhizosphere Bacterial Diversity

Abstract

Endophytic fungi can profoundly affect host productivity, but the underlying mechanisms of these effects are only partly understood. As the most important regulators of plant-soil feedback, root exudates can easily cause soil sickness in continuous monoculture systems by reducing certain microbes in the rhizosphere. In this study, exudates from roots colonized by the endophytic fungus Phomopsis liquidambaris significantly increased rhizosphere bacterial abundance, soil respiration, microbial biomass and enzyme activities in a long-term continuously cropped peanut soil. Further analysis revealed that P. liquidambaris-colonized root exudates clearly altered the carbon metabolism and rhizosphere bacterial diversity, which were closely correlated with changes in soil chemical properties caused by the exudates from the colonized roots. Finally, a synthetic root exudate experiment further confirmed that the root exudates derived from P. liquidambaris colonization can indeed play an important role in promoting peanut growth. Therefore, these results show that this endophytic fungus could improve the carbon metabolism and rhizosphere bacterial community in long-term monoculture soils via exudates from colonized roots, which contribute to the alleviation of soil sickness.

Keywords: Endophytic fungus; Peanut continuous cropping; Rhizosphere microbes; Root exudates; Soil sickness.