Byers, AlexaCondron, LMO’Callaghan, MWaller, LDickie, IAWakelin, SA2024-07-022023-10-102024-07-022023-112023-10-060168-649637816673 (pubmed)https://hdl.handle.net/10182/17308The root-associated soil microbiome contributes immensely to support plant health and performance against abiotic and biotic stressors. Understanding the processes that shape microbial assembly in root-associated soils is of interest in microbial ecology and plant health research. In this study, 37 plant species were grown in the same soil mixture for 10 months, whereupon the root-associated soil microbiome was assessed using amplicon sequencing. From this, the contribution of direct and indirect plant effects on microbial assembly was assessed. Plant species and plant-induced changes in soil physicochemistry were the most significant factors that accounted for bacterial and fungal community variation. Considering that all plants were grown in the same starting soil mixture, our results suggest that plants, in part, shape the assembly of their root-associated soil microbiome via their effects on soil physicochemistry. With the increase in phylogenetic ranking from plant species to class, we observed declines in the degree of community variation attributed to phylogenetic origin. That is, plant-microbe associations were unique to each plant species, but the phylogenetic associations between plant species were not important. We observed a large degree of residual variation (> 65%) not accounted for by any plant-related factors, which may be attributed to random community assembly.13 pagesPrinten©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of FEMS.microbial assemblymicrobial selectionplant effectsplant phylogenyroot-associated soil microbiomeBacteriaPlantsPlant RootsSoilSoil MicrobiologyPhylogenyRhizosphereMicrobiotaJournal Article10.1093/femsec/fiad1261574-6941ANZSRC::310802 Plant biochemistryANZSRC::310803 Plant cell and molecular biologyANZSRC::310806 Plant physiologyANZSRC::410603 Soil biologyANZSRC::310703 Microbial ecologyANZSRC::410604 Soil chemistry and soil carbon sequestration (excl. carbon sequestration science)ANZSRC::3107 Microbiologyhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Attribution