Can inoculation with living soil standardize microbial communities in soilless potting substrates?

0464347 - BÚ 2017 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Bukovská, P. - Püschel, David - Hršelová, H. - Jansa, J. - Gryndler, M.
Can inoculation with living soil standardize microbial communities in soilless potting substrates?
Applied Soil Ecology. Roč. 108, 01 DEC (2016), s. 278-287. ISSN 0929-1393. E-ISSN 1873-0272
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT 1M0571
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : microbial community profiling * compost * rhizosphere
Subject RIV: EF - Botanics
Impact factor: 2.786, year: 2016

Soilless plant cultivation substrates are commercially produced at large scales, but can show considerable variation in their performance in terms of sustaining plant growth and/or nutrition. This variation may be due to varying composition of microbial communities present in the substrates, mainly when composted organic materials are used as their components. Here we analyzed the portion of variability in composition of microbial (mainly the fungal) communities due to identity of substrate batches and compared it with variability due to the addition of a living soil (inoculation) or the presence of plant root system (i.e., the rhizosphere effect). The analysis was based on profiling total (DNA-based) and active (RNA-based) fungal and total (DNA-based) bacterial communities by using cultivation-independent molecular approaches. Contrary to expected effect of inoculation and rather limited variation across the substrate batches, identity of substrate batches in fact turned to explain the largest portion of biological variability, followed by the rhizosphere effect. The inoculation was completely ineffective as a factor affecting the indigenous microbial communities. These results indicate that the microbial communities in the soilless substrates are particularly resilient' to plant- or inoculation-induced changes, but still highly variable between the individual production batches. Active fungal communities were dominated by yeasts recruiting either from Asco- or Basidiomycota. Due to phylogenetically and functionally similar but mutually exclusive dominants (Galactomyces and Candida) of the microbial communities in the different substrate batches without obvious correlation with their physico-chemical properties, we assume functional redundancy to play an important role in microbial community assembly within the substrates.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0265519