Effects of Soil Microbiomes and Enzymatic Activities on Glechoma longituba

Abstract

Soil microbes and enzymes play important roles in plant growth and metabolism. However, for Glechoma longituba (Nakai) Kupr., an important crop with edible and medicinal uses in China, their effects are not well elucidated. To explore their impacts on plant morphology and bioactive compounds, the plant samples and rhizosphere soil of five different G. longituba populations were collected and investigated in this study. After high-throughput sequencing combined with data analyses, high microbial diversity and richness in the rhizosphere soil of each G. longituba population were observed, and the variations on bacterial and fungal community compositions among these soil samples were also proved. The activities of urease, neutral phosphatase, sucrase, protease, and polyphenol oxidase were significantly different among the rhizosphere soils from different G. longituba populations. Among the major microbial communities and soil enzymes we studied, the genera of Tomentella, Sebacina, Fusarium, Nitrospira, and the activity of soil sucrase were remarkably correlative with both the morphological indices and the contents of bioactive compounds of G. longituba by redundancy analysis. These findings would help guide the scientific plantation of G. longituba to promote its medicinal quality.