Availability of phosphorus and the impact on the root microbiome of several eucalyptus species

• Grant number: 21/05126-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: November 01, 2021
• End date: October 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Mazzafera
• Grantee: Maristela Calvente Morais
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 16/25498-0 - Phosphorus use efficiency in Eucalyptus and the physiological and genetic mechanisms involved, AP.TEM

Abstract

Phosphorous (P) is a macronutrient essential for plant growth and is present in different molecules that have major biological importance. P is a non-renewable element in nature, obtained from phosphorous rocks. Thus, P used as a fertilizer can lead to an extinction of its natural fonts. Most of the P present in soils is insoluble and not available for plant uptake hence being necessary different mechanisms for its solubilization. Plants have developed genetic strategies for better P uptake however, these strategies are genotype and species-dependent. In Brazil, the eucalyptus tree production has a major impact on the economy and studies have shown that this plant demands great amounts of P with variations among different species. Besides plant strategies developed to obtain non-available P from soils, microbial (bacteria and fungi) species present in the soil and the surface of the roots are capable of solubilizing and provide P nutrient to plants and thus, enhancing plant growth under P limitation. The main goal of this study is to assess the microbial (bacteria and fungi) community (taxonomy and function) in the root compartment and rhizosphere of Eucalyptus, grafted or not, under different soil P levels. To achieve this goal, five species of Eucalyptus will be cultivated under different P availability and the root and rhizosphere samples will be subjected to shotgun metagenome in order to determine the microbial composition (taxonomy) and potential function. Additionally, we will investigate the effect of grafting on the abundance and the composition of microbial genes of P and N cycles by qPCR and next-generation sequencing, respectively. (AU)