Phylogenetic farming: Can evolutionary history predict crop rotation via the soil microbiome?

ABSTRACT: Agriculture has long employed phylogenetic rules whereby farmers are encouraged to rotate taxonomically unrelated plants in shared soil. Although this forms a central tenet of sustainable agriculture, strangely, this on-farm "rule of thumb" has never been rigorously tested in a scientific framework. To experimentally evaluate the relationship between phylogenetic distance and crop performance, we used a plant-soil feedback approach whereby 35 crops and weeds varying in their relatedness to tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) were tested in a two-year field experiment. We used community profiling of the bacteria and fungi to determine the extent to which soil microbes contribute to phenotypic differences in crop growth. Overall, tomato yield was ca. 15% lower in soil previously cultivated

SUBMITTER: Kaplan I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7463318 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature