Changes in soil fungal communities after onset of wheat yellow mosaic virus disease

Abstract

Rhizosphere-associated microbes have important implications for plant health, but knowledge of the association between the pathological conditions of soil-borne virus-infected wheat and soil microbial communities, especially changes in fungal communities, remains limited. We investigated the succession of fungal communities from bulk soil to wheat rhizosphere soil in both infected and healthy plants using amplicon sequencing methods, and attempted to assess their potential role in plant health. Fungal diversity and richness decreased significantly from the bulk soil to the wheat rhizosphere soil, and had fewer fungi in the bulk soil of infected plant than healthy plants. The structure differences in fungal community at the two wheat health statuses or two compartment niches were obvious, soil physicochemical properties (i.e., NH4+ and soil organic carbon) contribute to differences in fungal community structure and alpha diversity. Comparison analysis showed Mortierellomycetes and Dothideomycetes are found as dominant communities in healthy wheat soils at class level. The genus Cystofilobasidium, Cladosporium, Mortierella and Stephanonectria are significantly enriched in bulk soil of healthy plant. Furthermore, co-occurrence network analysis showed that the fungi in healthy wheat soil has higher mutual benefit and connectivity compared with diseased wheat. In conclusion, we demonstrate that the occurrence of soil-borne viral diseases causes changes in the fungal community that depend on soil abiotic factors.