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Implications on soil management practices and application of biocontrol strains on soil disease suppressiveness for improved soil health and sustainable plant production (DiControl)

Project

Production processes

This project contributes to the research aim 'Production processes'. Which funding institutions are active for this aim? What are the sub-aims? Take a look:
Production processes


Project code: JKI-EP-08-2237
Contract period: 01.05.2015 - 30.04.2018
Purpose of research: Basic research

Maintaining soil health and fertility during intensification of agricultural production to cover the demands of food and energy of a growing world population, is one of the major challenges in agriculture. Soil microorganisms, soil type, agricultural management and plant genotype play a critical role as determinants of soil quality in maintaining soil functions and productivity. The ability of soils to suppress plant pathogens is a characteristic of soil quality and health, which is mediated to a large extent by soil microbes. Inadequate soil management results in substantial yield losses and accumulation of pathogens. Therefore, a better understanding of how agricultural management strategies affect soil properties is the key to propose farming strategies for high plant productivity and quality in sustainable agriculture. Our research approach will focus on the impact of farming strategies on the soil microbiome and its functions in terms of soil suppressiveness of plant pathogens. Moreover, the influence of agricultural management on the soil microbiome and its relationship to the rhizosphere microbiome will be investigated considering plant health and productivity. Rhizodeposition and root exudates are the driving force of rhizosphere processes with significant effects on the rhizosphere microbiome which in turn can exert stimulatory or inhibitory effects on plant pathogens. Therefore, we will include root exudate analysis in our research using localized, non-invasive exudate sampling techniques in combination with analytical profiling approaches. Microbiome analyses will focus on the complex bacterial as well as fungal community structure using novel approaches such as high-throughput metagenome sequencing. The community structure analysis will be combined with transcriptome analysis to gain insight into the functionality of the soil and rhizosphere microbiomes.

The influence of long-term farming strategies on the soil microbiome was studied under field conditions (Bernburg). By next generation sequencing (16S rRNA genes), significant effects of soil management (tillage, conserved) and precrop were observed on the soil bacterial community and distinct taxa. The effect of long-term agricultural management was also present when analysing the rhizosphere microbial community of lettuce cultivated in these soils under climate chamber conditions suggesting a soil memory effect that should be considered for the development of sustainable farming strategies.

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Subjects

Framework programme

BMEL Frameworkprogramme 2008

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