Abdelrahman Mostafa, Jogaiah Sudisha, Abdelmoteleb Mohamed, Fokar Mohamed, Nguyen Henry T, Tran Lam-Son Phan
Institiute of One Health and Innovation, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409, United States.
Department of Environmental Science, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod (DT), Tejaswini Hills, Periye, Kerala, 671316, India.
Environ Microbiome. 2025 Aug 13;20(1):105. doi: 10.1186/s40793-025-00763-w.
Different crops may recruit specific rhizosphere microbiomes that support their survival under unfavorable conditions, including hot semi-arid climates. However, the processes driving microbiome assembly within different crops and their adaptation to such extreme environmental conditions remain poorly understood. This study investigates whether upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and soybean (Glycine max) recruit distinct or overlapping rhizospheric bacterial communities under hot semi-arid conditions in Lubbock, Texas, United States, with a focus on their potential role in enhancing crop resilience. By exploring rhizobacterial recruitment strategies and differential microbial associations in these crops, this study addresses critical gaps in plant-microbiome interactions and paves the way for practical applications in hot semi-arid agricultural systems.
We found that the abundances and structures of rhizospheric bacterial communities differed among sorghum, soybean, and cotton, with the differences being closely linked to their predicted functional roles in stress adaptation and nutrient assimilation. Alpha and beta diversity analyses revealed that soybean rhizosphere exhibited the highest bacterial richness and diversity followed by cotton. In contrast, sorghum rhizobacteriome showed the lowest richness and less even distribution of rhizobacterial taxa compared with the other two crops, emphasizing crop-specific rhizobacterial associations. Actinobacteriota and Firmicutes phyla were significantly enriched in sorghum rhizosphere, whereas Pseudomonadota, Bacteroidota, and Acidobacteriota phyla were significantly enriched in soybean and cotton rhizospeheres under hot semi-arid conditions. Functional prediction analysis demonstrated that sorghum-associated rhizobacteriome was significantly enriched in pathways related to stress adaptation, while soybean and cotton rhizobacteriomes exhibited more diverse pathways, primarily associated with nitrogen and sulfur assimilation.
These findings underscore the influence of crop-specific factors in shaping rhizobacteriome composition and function to ensure their behavior and performance under hot semi-arid conditions in Lubbock, Texas, United States, with sorghum favoring stress adaptation, soybean being linked to nitrogen and sulfur assimilation, and cotton displaying intermediate traits. Our results highlight the potential for leveraging rhizobacteriome in developing innovative cultivation strategies to enhance crop resilience and productivity under challenging environmental conditions.
不同作物可能会招募特定的根际微生物群落，以支持它们在不利条件下生存，包括炎热的半干旱气候。然而，驱动不同作物内微生物群落组装及其对这种极端环境条件适应的过程仍知之甚少。本研究调查了在美国得克萨斯州拉伯克炎热的半干旱条件下，陆地棉（Gossypium hirsutum）、高粱（Sorghum bicolor）和大豆（Glycine max）是否招募不同的或重叠的根际细菌群落，重点关注它们在增强作物恢复力方面的潜在作用。通过探索这些作物中的根际细菌招募策略和不同的微生物关联，本研究填补了植物-微生物组相互作用方面的关键空白，并为炎热半干旱农业系统的实际应用铺平了道路。
我们发现高粱、大豆和棉花的根际细菌群落的丰度和结构存在差异，这些差异与它们在胁迫适应和养分同化中的预测功能作用密切相关。α和β多样性分析表明，大豆根际表现出最高的细菌丰富度和多样性，其次是棉花。相比之下，与其他两种作物相比，高粱根际微生物组的丰富度最低，根际细菌分类群的分布也更不均匀，强调了作物特异性的根际细菌关联。在炎热的半干旱条件下，放线菌门和厚壁菌门在高粱根际显著富集，而变形菌门、拟杆菌门和酸杆菌门在大豆和棉花根际显著富集。功能预测分析表明，与高粱相关的根际微生物组在与胁迫适应相关的途径中显著富集，而大豆和棉花根际微生物组表现出更多样化的途径，主要与氮和硫的同化有关。
这些发现强调了作物特异性因素对塑造根际微生物组组成和功能的影响，以确保它们在美国得克萨斯州拉伯克炎热的半干旱条件下的行为和表现，高粱有利于胁迫适应，大豆与氮和硫的同化有关，棉花表现出中间特征。我们的结果突出了利用根际微生物组开发创新种植策略以在具有挑战性的环境条件下增强作物恢复力和生产力的潜力。
