Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Plant Ecology and Phytochemistry, Institute of Biology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
J Chem Ecol. 2020 Aug;46(8):745-755. doi: 10.1007/s10886-020-01156-8. Epub 2020 Feb 5.
Abiotic and biotic properties of soil can influence growth and chemical composition of plants. Although it is well-known that soil microbial composition can vary greatly spatially, how this variation affects plant chemical composition is poorly understood. We grew genetically identical Jacobaea vulgaris in sterilized soil inoculated with live soil collected from four natural grasslands and in 100% sterilized soil. Within each grassland we sampled eight plots, totalling 32 different inocula. Two samples per plot were collected, leading to three levels of spatial variation: within plot, between and within grasslands. The leaf metabolome was analysed with H Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) to investigate if inoculation altered the metabolome of plants and how this varied between and within grasslands. Inoculation led to changes in metabolomics profiles of J. vulgaris in two out of four sites. Plants grown in sterilized and inoculated soils differed in concentrations of malic acid, tyrosine, trehalose and two pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA). Metabolomes of plants grown in inoculated soils from different sites varied in glucose, malic acid, trehalose, tyrosine and in one PA. The metabolome of plants grown in soils with inocula from the same site was more similar than with inocula from distant sites. We show that soil influences leaf metabolomes. Performance of aboveground insects often depends on chemical composition of plants. Hence our results imply that soil microbial communities, via affecting aboveground plant metabolomes, can impact aboveground plant-insect food chains but that it is difficult to make general predictions due to spatial variation in soil microbiomes.
土壤的非生物和生物特性会影响植物的生长和化学成分。虽然人们已经知道土壤微生物组成在空间上会有很大的差异，但这种变化如何影响植物的化学成分还知之甚少。我们在无菌土壤中种植了遗传上相同的普通矢车菊，这些无菌土壤中接种了来自四个天然草地的活体土壤，以及 100%无菌土壤。在每个草地中，我们采集了 8 个样地，总共采集了 32 个不同的接种体。每个样地采集了两个样本，导致了三种空间变异水平：样地内、草地间和草地内。用 H 核磁共振波谱（NMR）分析叶片代谢组，以研究接种是否改变了植物的代谢组，以及这种变化在草地之间和草地内是如何变化的。在四个地点中的两个地点，接种导致了普通矢车菊代谢组图谱的变化。在无菌和接种土壤中生长的植物在苹果酸、酪氨酸、海藻糖和两种吡咯里西啶生物碱（PA）的浓度上存在差异。在不同地点接种土壤中生长的植物的代谢组在葡萄糖、苹果酸、海藻糖、酪氨酸和一种 PA 上存在差异。在同一地点接种土壤中生长的植物的代谢组比来自遥远地点的接种土壤中生长的植物的代谢组更相似。我们表明，土壤会影响叶片代谢组。地上昆虫的表现往往取决于植物的化学成分。因此，我们的结果表明，土壤微生物群落通过影响地上植物的代谢组，可以影响地上植物-昆虫食物链，但由于土壤微生物组的空间变异，很难做出一般预测。
