Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada.
Atlantic Forestry Centre, Natural Resources Canada, 1350 Regent Street, Fredericton, NB, E3C 2G6, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2023 Apr 13;13(1):6088. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-32935-4.
An important challenge in the study of ecosystem function is resolving how plant antiherbivore chemical defence expression may influence plant-associated microbes, and nutrient release. We report on a factorial experiment that explores a mechanism underlying this interplay using individuals of the perennial plant Tansy that vary genotypically in the chemical content of their antiherbivore defenses (chemotypes). We assessed to what extent soil and its associated microbial community versus chemotype-specific litter determined the composition of the soil microbial community. Microbial diversity profiles revealed sporadic effects of chemotype litter and soil combinations. Soil source and litter type both explained the microbial communities decomposing the litter with soil source having a more important effect. Some microbial taxa are related to particular chemotypes, and thus intra-specific chemical variation of a single plant chemotype can shape the litter microbial community. But we found that ultimately the effect of fresh litter inputs from a chemotype appeared to act secondary as a filter on the composition of the microbial community, with the primary factor being the existing microbial community in the soil.
在研究生态系统功能时，一个重要的挑战是解决植物抗草食动物化学防御表达如何影响植物相关微生物和养分释放的问题。我们报告了一个析因实验，该实验使用多年生植物艾菊的个体来探索这种相互作用的机制，这些个体在抗草食动物防御的化学含量（化学型）上存在遗传差异。我们评估了土壤及其相关微生物群落与特定化学型凋落物在多大程度上决定了土壤微生物群落的组成。微生物多样性分析揭示了化学型凋落物和土壤组合的偶发性影响。土壤来源和凋落物类型都解释了分解凋落物的微生物群落，土壤来源的影响更大。一些微生物类群与特定的化学型有关，因此单一植物化学型的种内化学变异可以塑造凋落物微生物群落。但我们发现，最终来自一个化学型的新鲜凋落物输入的影响似乎是作为微生物群落组成的次要过滤器，主要因素是土壤中现有的微生物群落。
