Enrichment of Verrucomicrobia, Actinobacteria and Burkholderiales drives selection of bacterial community from soil by maize roots in a traditional milpa agroecosystem.

ABSTRACT: Milpas are rain-fed agroecosystems involving domesticated, semi-domesticated and tolerated plant species that combine maize with a large variety of other crop, tree or shrub species. Milpas are low input and low-tillage, yet highly productive agroecosystems, which have been maintained over millennia in indigenous communities in Mexico and other countries in Central America. Thus, milpas may retain ancient plant-microorganisms interactions, which could have been lost in modern high-tillage monocultures with large agrochemical input. In this work, we performed high-throughput 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing of soil adjacent to maize roots and bulk soil sampled at 30 cm from the base of the plants. We found that the bacterial communities of maize root soil had a lower alpha diversity, suggesting

SUBMITTER: Aguirre-von-Wobeser E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6301694 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature