Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Dec 17:16:1729353.
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1729353. eCollection 2025.

Effects of intercropping different quinoa cultivars on peanut rhizosphere microorganisms and yield in saline-alkali soil

Xiaoyan Liang  1   2 , Rao Fu  1   3 , Chuanjie Chen  1   3 , Meng Li  1   3 , Kuihua Yi  1   3 , Haiyang Zhang  1   3 , Yinyu Gu  1   3 , Jiajia Li  1   3
Affiliations

Effects of intercropping different quinoa cultivars on peanut rhizosphere microorganisms and yield in saline-alkali soil

Xiaoyan Liang et al. Front Microbiol. .

Abstract

Intercropping is an effective ecological utilization strategy in saline-alkali land, however, the response of peanut rhizosphere microorganisms in saline-alkali soil to different quinoa cultivars used in intercropping is unclear. In this study, a field experiment was conducted to intercrop peanut (IXP, ILP and IQP) with three quinoa cultivars Xinli 3 (IXQ), Longli 4 (ILQ) and Qinling 2 (IQQ), which differed significantly in plant traits. Illumina-based 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to investigate the microbial diversity of peanut rhizosphere and to explore the relationship between with environment. The peanuts primarily accumulated sodium (Na) in their roots, especially during the vegetative stage (17.5 g/kg), whereas all plant parts substantially accumulated Na in the reproductive stage. Actinobacteriota and Proteobacteria were the dominant bacterial phyla of peanut rhizosphere, accounting for over 40% of the total bacteria in each group; norank_f__Geminicoccaceae and norank_f__norank_o__Vicinamibacterales were the dominant bacterial genera among all treatments, each exceeding 3.40%. The genus Arthrobacter exhibited the most significant differences in relative abundance among the three quinoa cultivars. The strongest association between peanut rhizosphere microbiota and yield was found when intercropping with IXQ. Stochastic processes dominate the assembly of bacterial communities under intercropping, with IXP exhibiting the highest normalized stochasticity ratio: 68.69% during the vegetative growth stage and 81.11% during the reproductive growth stage. Variance partitioning analysis further showed that peanut rhizosphere bacteria were most strongly correlated with yield (36.1%), followed by nutrient uptake (33.5%) and soil chemical properties (26.6%). Taken together, different quinoa cultivars used for intercropping substantially affected the correlation between peanut rhizosphere microorganisms and soil chemical properties, peanut growth, nutrient uptake, and pod yield, with cultivar IXQ showing the best effects for intercropping with peanuts in saline-alkali soil. These findings provide new insight into the pivotal roles of plant-microbe-yield interactions in abiotic stress mitigation.

Keywords: intercrop; peanut; quinoa cultivars; rhizosphere microorganisms; saline-alkali soil; yield.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The 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.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Na concentration of peanut and its rizhosphere soil when intercropped with different quinoa cultivars. V-IXP, the V stage of IXP (peanuts intercropped with quinoa cultivars IXQ); V-ILP, the V stage of ILP (peanuts intercropped with quinoa cultivars ILQ); V-IQP, the V stage of IQP (peanuts intercropped with quinoa cultivars IQQ); R-IXP, the R stage of IXP; R-ILP, the R stage of ILP; R-IQP, the R stage of IQP. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences (p < 0.05).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Composition of bacterial OTUs among different treatments. (a) Venn of two stages; (b) Venn of three quinoa cultivar conditions; (c) Venn of all treatments; (d) Bar of all treatments; (e) Bar of three quinoa cultivar conditions; (f) Bar of two stages.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Microbial β-diversity and community structure. (a) PCoA of three quinoa cultivar conditions. (b) PCoA of all treatments. (c) PCoA of two stages. (d) NST of three quinoa cultivar conditions. (e) NST of two stages. (f) NST of all treatments.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Differential bacteria among treatments. (a) LEfSe. (b) LDA. (c) Different genera among three quinoa cultivar conditions. (d) Different genera among the V stage of three quinoa cultivar conditions. (e) Different genera among the R stage of three quinoa cultivar conditions. (f) Different genera among all treatments. (g) Different genera between two stages.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) RDA of the relationship between sample distribution and environmental factors in all treatments. (b) Mantel-test of uptake under three quinoa cultivar conditions. (c) Mantel-test of yield under three quinoa cultivar conditions. (d) VPA. (e) Level 1 of three quinoa cultivar conditions.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Heatmap of the correlation between IXP rhizosphere soil bacteria and environmental factors.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Heatmap of the correlation between IQP rhizosphere soil bacteria and environmental factors.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Heatmap of the correlation between ILP rhizosphere soil bacteria and environmental factors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ahsan T., Tian P. C., Gao J., Wang C., Liu C., Huang Y. Q. (2023). Effects of microbial agent and microbial fertilizer input on soil microbial community structure and diversity in a peanut continuous cropping system. J. Adv. Res. 64, 1–13. doi: 10.1016/j.jare.2023.11.028 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ali R., Chaluvadi S. R., Wang X., Hazzouri K. M., Sudalaimuthuasari N., Rafi M., et al. (2024). Microbiome properties in the root nodules of Prosopis cineraria, a leguminous desert tree. Microbiol Spectrum 12:e0361723. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.03617-23, - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Angeli V., Miguel Silva P., Crispim Massuela D., Khan M. W., Hamar A., Khajehei F., et al. (2020). Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.): an overview of the potentials of the “golden grain” and socio-economic and environmental aspects of its cultivation and marketization. Foods 9:216. doi: 10.3390/foods9020216, - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bigatton E. D., Verdenelli R. A., Haro R. J., Ayoub I., Barbero F. M., Martín M. P., et al. (2024). Metagenomic analysis to assess the impact of plant growth-promoting Rhizobacteria on Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) crop production and soil enzymes and microbial diversity. J. Agric. Food Chem. 72, 22385–22397. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.4c05687, - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brooker R. W., Bennett A. W., Cong W. F., Daniell T. J., George T. S., Hallett P. D., et al. (2015). Improving intercropping: a synthesis of research in agronomy, plant physiology and ecology. New Phytol. 206, 107–117. doi: 10.1111/nph.13132 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources