Increased Diversity of Rhizosphere Bacterial Community Confers Adaptability to Coastal Environment for Sapium sebiferum Trees

Abstract

Sapium sebiferum (L.) Roxb. is an economically important tree in eastern Asia, and it exhibits many traits associated with good forestation species in coastal land. However, scarce research has been conducted to elucidate the effects of rhizosphere bacterial diversity on the adaptability and viability of S. sebiferum trees grown in the coastal environment. Field trials were conducted, and rhizosphere soil samples were collected from typical coastal and forestry nursery environments. Rhizosphere bacterial communities were evaluated using 16S rRNA pyrosequencing. A total of 43 bacterial phyla were detected in all the coastal and nursery rhizospheric soil samples. Relatively higher rhizosphere community diversity was found in coastal field-grown trees. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteriota, Bacteroidota, Chloroflex, and Gemmatimonadota were dominant bacterial phyla in rhizosphere communities of tallow trees. However, the rare groups in the coastal rhizosphere soils, with a relative abundance lower than 1%, including Latescibacterota, Methylomirabilota, NB1-j, and Nitrospirota, were largely absent in the nursery field-grown tree’s rhizosphere soils. LEfSe analysis identified a total of 43 bacterial groups that were more significantly abundant in the coastal rhizosphere environment than in that of forestry nursery grown trees. Further, our cladogram analysis identified Nitrospirota, Methylomirabilota, NB1-j, and Latescibacterota as biomarkers for the coastal environment at the phylum taxonomic level. These results suggested that the adaptability of S. sebiferum trees in coastal environment might be promoted by rhizosphere microbial interactions. Complex tree–microbe interactions might enhance the resistance of the trees to coastal environment, partially by recruiting certain bacterial microbiome species, which is of high saline-alkali resistance.