College of Horticulture, China Agricultural University, Beijing, P. R. China.
Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural (Nutrition and Physiology), the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing, P. R. China.
J Appl Microbiol. 2021 Apr;130(4):1294-1306. doi: 10.1111/jam.14878. Epub 2020 Oct 17.
In China, apple production areas are largely from the coastal to inland areas and across varied climate zones. However, the relationship among soil micro-organisms, environmental factors and fruit quality has not been clearly confirmed in orchards. Here we attempted to identify the variation of soil bacteria in the main apple producing regions and reveal the relationship among climatic factor, soil properties, soil bacterial community and fruit quality.
Sixty soil samples were collected from six main apple producing areas in China. We examined the soil bacteria using bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicon profiling. The results show that the soil bacterial diversity of apple orchards varied from the Bohai Bay Region to the Loess Plateau Region. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria were the predominant taxa at the phylum level for all six areas. In the Bohai Bay and the Loess Plateau region, which are the two largest apple producing areas, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria had the highest relative abundance, respectively. Furthermore, soil bacterial diversity showed positive correlation with the mean annual temperature (MAT), soil organic matter (SOM) and pH. Excluding a direct effect on the apple fruit quality, MAT exerted an indirect influence through soil SOM and pH to alter the relative abundance of dominant taxa and shift the bacterial diversity, which affects the apple fruit titratable acids and soluble solids.
Geographic variables underlie apple orchard soil bacterial communities vary according to spatial scale. Environmental factors exert an indirect effect on apple fruit quality via shaping soil bacterial community.
This study provides a list of bacteria associated with environmental factors and the ecological attributes of their interactions in apple orchards, which will improve our ability to promote soil bacterial functional capabilities in order to reduce the fertilizer input and enhance the fruit quality.
在中国，苹果产区从沿海到内陆，跨越了不同的气候带。然而，果园中土壤微生物、环境因素和果实品质之间的关系尚未得到明确证实。在这里，我们试图确定主要苹果产区土壤细菌的变化，并揭示气候因素、土壤特性、土壤细菌群落和果实品质之间的关系。
从中国 6 个主要苹果产区采集了 60 个土壤样本。我们使用细菌 16S rRNA 基因扩增子谱分析了土壤细菌。结果表明，苹果园土壤细菌的多样性从渤海湾地区到黄土高原地区有所不同。在所有 6 个地区，细菌门水平上的优势菌群为变形菌门、酸杆菌门和放线菌门。在渤海湾和黄土高原这两个最大的苹果产区，变形菌门和放线菌门的相对丰度最高。此外，土壤细菌多样性与年平均温度（MAT）、土壤有机质（SOM）和 pH 值呈正相关。MAT 除了直接影响苹果果实品质外，还通过土壤 SOM 和 pH 值间接影响优势菌群的相对丰度和细菌多样性的变化，从而影响苹果果实可滴定酸和可溶性固形物的含量。
根据空间尺度，地理变量是苹果果园土壤细菌群落变化的基础。环境因素通过塑造土壤细菌群落对苹果果实品质产生间接影响。
本研究提供了与环境因素相关的细菌清单，以及它们在苹果果园中的相互作用的生态属性，这将提高我们促进土壤细菌功能能力的能力，以减少肥料投入，提高果实品质。
