A commercial seaweed extract structured microbial communities associated with tomato and pepper roots and significantly increased crop yield.

ABSTRACT: Seaweeds have been used as a source of natural fertilizer and biostimulant in agriculture for centuries. However, their effects on soil and crop root microbiota remain unclear. Here, we used a commercially available Ascophyllum nodosum extract (ANE) to test its effect on bacterial and fungal communities of rhizospheric soils and roots of pepper and tomato plants in greenhouse trials. Two independent trials were conducted in a split-block design. We used amplicon sequencing targeting fungal ITS and bacterial 16S rRNA gene to determine microbial community structure changes. We find that productivity parameters of root, shoot and fruit biomass were positively and significantly influenced by the ANE amendment. In addition, a-diversity differed significantly between amended and control plants,

SUBMITTER: Renaut S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6801128 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature