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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 2009, p. 6441-6450, Vol. 75, No. 20
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00736-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Comparison of Effects of Compost Amendment and of Single-Strain Inoculation on Root Bacterial Communities of Young Cucumber Seedlings{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Maya Ofek,1,2 Yitzhak Hadar,2 and Dror Minz1*

Institute of Soil, Water, and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural Research Organization, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan, Israel,1 Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, P.O. Box 12, Rehovot, Israel2

Received 31 March 2009/ Accepted 13 August 2009

Compost amendment and inoculations with specific microorganisms are fundamentally different soil treatment methods, commonly used in agriculture for the improvement of plant growth and health. Although distinct, both methods affect the rhizosphere and the plant roots. In the present study we used a 16S rRNA gene approach to achieve an overview of early consequences of these treatments on the assemblage of plant root bacterial communities. For this purpose, cucumber seedlings were grown, under controlled conditions, in perlite potting mix amended with biosolid compost or straw compost, or inoculated with Streptomyces spp. A uniform trend of response of root bacterial communities for all treatments was observed. Root bacterial density, measured as bacterial targets per plant tef gene by real-time PCR, was reduced in 31 to 67%. In addition, increased taxonomic diversity accompanied shifts in composition ({alpha}-diversity). The magnitude of change in these parameters relative to the perlite control varied between the different treatments but not in relation to the treatment method (compost amendments versus inoculations). Similarity between the compositions of root and of potting mix bacterial communities (β-diversity) was relatively unchanged. The abundance of Oxalobacteraceae was >50% of the total root bacterial community in the untreated perlite. Root domination by this group subsided >10-fold (straw compost) to >600-fold (Streptomyces sp. strain S1) after treatment. Thus, loss of dominance appears to be the major phenomenon underlining the response trend of the root bacterial communities.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural Research Organization of Israel, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan, Israel. Phone: 972-3-9683316. Fax: 972-3-9604017. E-mail: minz{at}agri.gov.il

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 21 August 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 2009, p. 6441-6450, Vol. 75, No. 20
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00736-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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