Unveiling the Microbiota Diversity of the Xerophyte Argania spinosa L. Skeels Root System and Residuesphere
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ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
Unveiling the Microbiota Diversity of the Xerophyte Argania spinosa L. Skeels Root System and Residuesphere Francesca Mapelli 1
&
Valentina Riva 1 & Lorenzo Vergani 1 & Redouane Choukrallah 2 & Sara Borin 1
Received: 15 November 2019 / Accepted: 13 May 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The microbiota associated to xerophyte is a “black box” that might include microbes involved in plant adaptation to the extreme conditions that characterize their habitat, like water shortage. In this work, we studied the bacterial communities inhabiting the root system of Argania spinosa L. Skeels, a tree of high economic value and ecological relevance in Northern Africa. Illumina 16S rRNA gene sequencing and cultivation techniques were applied to unravel the bacterial microbiota’s structure in environmental niches associated to argan plants (i.e., root endosphere, rhizosphere, root-surrounding soil), not associated to the plant (i.e., bulk soil), and indirectly influenced by the plant being partially composed by its leafy residue and the associated microbes (i.e., residuesphere). Illumina dataset indicated that the root system portions of A. spinosa hosted different bacterial communities according to their degree of association with the plant, enriching for taxa typical of the plant microbiome. Similar alpha- and betadiversity trends were observed for the total microbiota and its cultivable fraction, which included 371 isolates. In particular, the residuesphere was the niche with the highest bacterial diversity. The Plant Growth Promotion (PGP) potential of 219 isolates was investigated in vitro, assessing several traits related to biofertilization and biocontrol, besides the production of exopolysaccharides. Most of the multivalent isolates showing the higher PGP score were identified in the residuesphere, suggesting it as a habitat that favor their proliferation. We hypothesized that these bacteria can contribute, in partnership with the argan root system, to the litter effect played by this tree in its native arid lands. Keywords Argan . Microbiome . Plant growth–promoting bacteria . Litter . Soil . Sustainable agriculture
Introduction Argania spinosa L. Skeels is a xerophyte, endemic from Northern Africa and especially present in the Agadir area in South Western Morocco. Archaeobotanists demonstrated the high importance of this tree for the economy of Morocco since the past centuries [1]. Nowadays, the plant has a pivotal economic value for this country due to the production of argan oil
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-020-01543-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Francesca Mapelli [email protected] 1
Department of Food Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy
2
Hassan II, Salinity and Plant Nutrition Laboratory, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire, Agadir, Morocco
that is worldwide requested by the cosmetic industry. Mo
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