Abstract
BACKGROUND: To analyze the effects of different cultivation patterns on the structure and diversity of the microbial community in the rhizosphere soil of Trichosanthes kirilowii (T. kirilowii) arms to establish reasonable and effective strategies to mitigate the continuous cropping barriers and promote the high-quality cultivation of T. kirilowii. METHODS: Three distinct cultivation patterns were investigated: open-field cultivation (TM1), film-mulched cultivation (TM2), and soybean intercropping cultivation (TM3). High-throughput sequencing and bioinformatic analyses were employed to evaluate the rhizosphere microbiome, and redundancy analysis was utilized to investigate the relationship between the microbial communities and soil nutrient indicators. RESULTS: TM2 and TM3 increased soil bacterial community diversity, reduced fungal community diversity, elevated the relative abundance of beneficial bacterial genera, and reduced the abundance of detrimental fungal genera in the rhizosphere soil. The relative abundance of Pseudarthrobacter, unclassified_Steroidobacteraceae, and Nocardioides in TM2 and TM3 was markedly higher than in TM1. Conversely, the relative abundance of Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, Ceratobasidium, and Plectosphaerella in TM2 and TM3 was significantly reduced compared to TM1. The contents of available potassium (AK), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and pH in the rhizosphere soil of TM2 and TM3 were significantly higher than those in TM1. The distribution of soil bacterial genera was significantly influenced by the contents of TN and AK, while the distribution of soil fungal genera was significantly or extremely significantly impacted by the contents of TP, total potassium (TK), soil organic matter (SOM), and pH. The content of AK was extremely significantly positively correlated with the relative abundance of Nocardioides, whereas the content of TK showed an extremely negative correlation with the relative abundance of Ceratobasidium. Similarly, pH demonstrated an extremely negative correlation with the relative abundance of Rhizoctonia and Ceratobasidium. CONCLUSIONS: Film-mulched cultivation and soybean intercropping cultivation altered the soil nutrients, as well as the structure and diversity of soil microbial communities. Thus, in agricultural production, film-mulched cultivation and soybean intercropping cultivation can serve to regulate soil nutrients and microbial communities, thereby mitigating the barriers of continuous cropping of T. kirilowii.