Arid Zone Research ›› 2025, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (8): 1463-1472.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2025.08.10

• Plant Ecology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Differences in the nutrient and microbial diversity of rhizosphere soil between wild and cultivated Lycium ruthenicum

SHI Xiujuan(), LI Weiwei, ZHAO Ruiming()   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, Gansu, China
  • Received:2025-04-17 Revised:2025-06-27 Online:2025-08-15 Published:2025-11-24

Abstract:

To analyze the differences in physicochemical properties and microbial diversity of rhizosphere soil between wild and cultivated Lycium ruthenicum plants in different habitats, and to provide a theoretical foundation for optimizing cultivation strategies. This rhizosphere soils of wild and cultivated L. ruthenicum plants in Nuomuhong, Qinghai was analyzed by high-throughput sequencing and soil physicochemical analysis to compare total nutrient content [total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total potassium (TK)], soil organic carbon (SOC), and microbial community composition. Redundancy analysis (RDA) and functional prediction were employed to elucidate microbe-soil factor interactions. The results showed: (1) Wild plants exhibited significantly higher TK (P<0.001) and SOC (P<0.05) content in rhizosphere soil than cultivated plants, whereas TN and TP did not significantly differ between the groups. pH was 0.74 lower in wild plants than in cultivated plants (P<0.05). (2) Microbial community analysis revealed that the rhizosphere soil of wild plants exhibited higher a relative abundance of Actinobacteriota, Chloroflexi, and Ascomycota than cultivated plants. Conversely, cultivated plants displayed higher relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Acidobacteriota, Mortierellomycota, and Chytridiomycota. (3) RDA illustrated that microbial alpha diversity in wild plants was positively correlated with TN, TP, TK, and SOC but negatively correlated with pH, whereas the opposite trends were observed in cultivated plants. (4) Functional prediction indicated higher saprotrophic fungal functional abundance in wild plants, whereas cultivated plants exhibited enriched plant pathogen functions. These findings provide a scientific basis for the scaled cultivation of L. ruthenicum and the ecological restoration of degraded habitats.

Key words: Lycium ruthenicum, physicochemical properties, microbial diversity, community structure, soil characteristics