Abstract
Plant roots are the primary source of organic materials that become stabilized in soil. While most root carbon is decomposed into carbon dioxide (CO2), the remainder typically undergoes multiple microbial transformations before it forms longer-term associations with soil minerals. However, the mechanisms by which roots affect microbial utilization of organic materials and subsequent mineral stabilization processes are poorly understood. It is well known that living roots increase the biomass of nearby microbial communities, and shape their population dynamics, diversity, and interactions. Community assembly and metabolic potential of these rhizosphere-enriched microorganisms are strongly influenced by the chemical composition of the exudates released by the host plant. The root exudate pools of plants undergo compositional changes as they grow, reproduce, and senesce. In the well-studied annual grasses Avena barbata and Avena fatua, this changing rhizosphere substrate pool and the “bloom” of organisms that respond are phylogenetically coherent; Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria are consistently depleted, whereas Alpha and Betaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes are reliably enriched. When compared to non-root-influenced bulk soils, the responsive community is predictably less taxon-rich, yet forms more complex networks. These rhizosphere dynamics have significant downstream effects on the colonization of nearby soil minerals, degradation of prior season’s root litters, and the balance of stabilized versus lost soil carbon.
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Acknowledgments
This study is based on research supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research Genomic Science Program under Award Numbers DE-SC0014079, DE-SC0010570, and DE-SC0016247 to MKF. Part of this work was performed at the University of Oklahoma, funded by the DOE under UC-subcontract number 00008322. J. Pett-Ridge and E. Nuccio contributed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy at LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 and US DOE Genomics Science program awards SCW1039, SCW 1632, SCW1589, and SCW1421. The study performed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was supported by the DOE, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research through Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. We thank the current and past members of the DOE Genomic Science Carbon Cycling “Cradle to Grave” research team for their support on the multiple projects conducted as part of this research.
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Pett-Ridge, J. et al. (2021). Rhizosphere Carbon Turnover from Cradle to Grave: The Role of Microbe–Plant Interactions. In: Gupta, V.V.S.R., Sharma, A.K. (eds) Rhizosphere Biology: Interactions Between Microbes and Plants. Rhizosphere Biology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6125-2_2
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