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. 2024 Jun 19:15:1416256.
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1416256. eCollection 2024.

Tobacco crop rotation enhances the stability and complexity of microbial networks

Huilin Yan  1 , Shaolong Wu  2 , Ping Li  3 , Xin Jin  4 , Dejun Shi  5 , Danjia Tu  5 , Wei-Ai Zeng  6 , Lin Tan  7
Affiliations

Tobacco crop rotation enhances the stability and complexity of microbial networks

Huilin Yan et al. Front Microbiol. .

Abstract

Introduction: The effects of continuous cropping and rotation cropping, two important tobacco cultivation practices, on soil microbial communities at different stages remain unclear. Different planting patterns have been shown to influence soil physical and chemical properties, which in turn can affect the composition and diversity of soil microbial communities.

Methods: In order to investigate the impact of different planting methods on soil microbial community structure, we selected two representative planting methods: continuous cropping (tobacco) and rotational cropping (tobacco-maize). These methods were chosen as the focal points of our research to explore the potential effects on soil microbial communities. High-throughput sequencing technology was employed to investigate the structure of soil microbial communities, as well as their relationships with soil environmental factors, by utilizing the 16S rRNA, ITS, and 18S genes. Furthermore, the interaction among microorganisms was explored through the application of the Random Matrix Theory (RMT) molecular ecological network approach.

Results: There was no significant difference in α diversity, but significant difference in β diversity based on Jaccard distance test. Compared to continuous cropping, crop rotation significantly increased the abundance of beneficial prokaryotes Verrucomicrobia and Rhodanobacter. These findings indicate that crop rotation promotes the enrichment of Verrucomicrobia and Rhodanobacter in the soil microbial community. AP and NH4-N had a greater effect on the community structure of prokaryotes and fungi in tobacco soil, while only AP had a greater effect on the community structure of protist. Molecular ecological network analysis showed that the network robustness and Cohesion of rotation were significantly higher than that of continuous cropping, indicating that the complexity and stability of molecular ecological networks were higher in the rotational, and the microbial communities cooperated more effectively, and the community structure was more stable.

Discussion: From this point of view, rotational cropping is more conducive to changing the composition of soil microbial community, enhancing the stability of microbial network structure, and enhancing the potential ecological functions in soil.

Keywords: co-occurrence network; continuous cropping; rotational cropping; soil microorganism; tobacco.

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Conflict of interest statement

SW was employed by Tobacco Company of Hunan Province, W-aZ was employed by Changsha Tobacco Company of Hunan Province. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer SG declared a past co-authorship with the author XJ to the handling editor.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Random forest analysis showed the differential distribution of soil microbial communities under different planting patterns. (A) Prokaryotes. (B) ITS. (C) 18S.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The relationship between microbial community and soil physicochemical properties was analyzed by Mantel test.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Analysis of community structure network of prokaryotes, fungi and protists. (A) Prokaryotic networks. (B) Fungal networks. (C) Protist networks. Different colors represent different modules, and modules with <5 nodes are gray.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The complexity and stability of soil microbial community. (A) Cohesion analysis of the microbial communities, where blue represents continuous cropping samples and the red represents rotational cropping samples. (B) Robustness analysis of the microbial communities. The levels of significance are indicated as 0.001***, 0.01**, and 0.05*.
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