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Abstract Aim Nonsuicidal self‐injury is common among adolescents. Dispelling related public misconceptions is essential for creating effective prevention and intervention strategies, as these myths contribute to stigmatization. This study examined the prevalence of self‐injury myths among the Japanese public and explored how demographics and personal experiences influence these beliefs. Methods A nationwide web‐based self‐report survey of 2000 Japanese adults (mean age = 44.6 ± 14.3 years) examined their agreement with 14 scientifically unsupported self‐injury beliefs. Endorsement rates for each myth were calculated, and the associations between myth beliefs and other variables were explored. Results Fourteen myths were analyzed, with endorsement rates of 21.0%–68.7%. Logistic regression analysis indicated that men were more likely to endorse the myth that self‐injury is uncommon (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.17–1.79), whereas women were more prone to myths about the rarity of self‐injury, using a single method, stimulation as the exclusive purpose, wrist‐cutting prevalence, and average onset age. Younger participants were more likely to believe that self‐injury is solely for stimulation than other age groups. Those with human‐service professional experience were more likely to view self‐injury as attention‐seeking compared to those without such experience (AOR = 1.62, 95% CI = 1.07–2.46). With some exceptions, individuals who expressed confidence in their ability to respond to self‐injurers were more likely to endorse the myths. Conclusion These findings highlight the need for targeted educational interventions to dispel misconceptions about self‐injury and improve public understanding of this complex behavior.

Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth), a leguminous plant with nitrogen-fixing ability, is used as a cover crop and has the potential to suppress weeds and plant diseases. The microbial composition, particularly fungal endophytes, which may be related to the beneficial functions of this crop, has not been previously studied. In this study, we analyzed the diversity and function of culturable fungal endophytes associated with hairy vetch from eight locations across Japan. Using the fungal culture method, a total of 2,186 isolates were recovered and assigned to 80 distinct internal transcribed spacer (ITS) genotypes, spanning 28 genera. The results demonstrated that geographic location and soil physicochemical properties significantly influence the community composition of the hairy vetch fungal endophytes. Soil pH showed a significant positive correlation with the abundance of Penicillium, which was the most dominant genus in all the sampling locations and tissues. The majority of the isolates promoted plant growth and colonized hairy vetch and soybean roots, significantly promoting the growth of hairy vetch and/or soybean plants. Among the isolates, Penicillium griseofulvum AKL25 and Trichoderma koningii AKR15 significantly enhanced both hairy vetch and soybean growth, respectively. Meanwhile, Alternaria alternata OGL80 significantly increased soybean growth, but it did not affect hairy vetch growth, indicating host specificity of the fungal endophytes. In conclusion, this study showed that soil properties and geographic location play a critical role in shaping the community composition and structure of endophytic fungi associated with hairy vetch. Additionally, the isolated fungi promoted hairy vetch and soybean growth, with a host preference. Furthermore, this study revealed that a novel endophytic fungus, P. griseofulvum AKL25, which has high growth-promoting activity, can be utilized as a microbial inoculant to promote hairy vetch and soybean growth in sustainable agriculture.

Livestock production in Afghanistan highly relies on grazing and clover feed, which is a key component of pastures and forage crops. This study elucidated the genetic diversity of clover-nodulating rhizobia in different ecological regions and their effects on clover growth. A total of 57 rhizobia were isolated and their genetic diversities were studied through 16S rRNA and nifD genes. The isolates were inoculated to clover (Afghan local variety), to investigate the potential of nitrogen fixation and influences of clover growth. The 16S rRNA gene analysis showed two distinct groups of Rhizobium (94.7%) and Ensifer (5.3%) species. The nifD phylogenetic relationship revealed a high similarity to Rhizobium and a novel lineage group close to Rhizobium leguminosarum species. In the plant test, different genotypes significantly (p < 0.01) exhibited an increase in plant biomass production, compared to the un-inoculated plants. Among genotypes, the highest plant biomass was recorded in PC8 (1769.0 mg/plant) and PC9 (1409.2 mg/plant) isolates as compared to un-inoculated plants (144.0 mg/plant). Moreover, these isolates showed maximum nitrogen fixation rates of 8.2 and 6.5 µM/plant, respectively. These isolates were identified as the most promising rhizobial strains for developing biofertilizers in the context of Afghanistan.

Abstract Aim Inmates in correctional institutions experience higher rates of suicide attempt (SA), suicidal ideation (SI), and nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) than the general population. This study aimed to examine the association between the Big Five personality traits and suicide‐related behavior, and to estimate the prevalence rate of such behaviors among Japanese institutionalized youth. Methods The participants were 436 youths who had been admitted to four juvenile classification homes (JCHs) between September 2021 and March 2023; they were asked to respond to a self‐report questionnaire after obtaining informed consent. Results A total of 8.1% and 19.3%, 29.4% and 44.7%, and 46.3% and 75.3% of males and females had experienced SA, SI, and NSSI in their lifetime, respectively. Females reported significantly higher instances of suicide‐related behaviors than males considering all suicide‐related behaviors. Logistic regression analyses revealed that neuroticism significantly increased the odds ratios for SA, SI, and NSSI on controlling for sex, age, and number of admissions to JCHs. For NSSI, the odds ratio for agreeableness was significantly lower than 1, indicating a lower probability of NSSI. Conclusion The findings of our study demonstrate that neuroticism, one of the Big Five traits, was consistently and significantly associated with all suicide‐related behaviors, including SA, SI, and NSSI, among youth offenders, while agreeableness was found as a protective factor only against NSSI. The results of this study might help correctional officers identify justice‐involved youth at higher risk for suicide and allow the development of early interventions to prevent suicide.

Plant biostimulants have received attention as sustainable alternatives to chemical fertilizers. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs), among the compounds secreted by plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs), are assumed to alleviate abiotic stress. This study aims to investigate the effect of purified EPSs on rice under abiotic stress and analyze their mechanisms. A pot experiment was conducted to elucidate the effects of inoculating EPSs purified from PGPRs that increase biofilm production in the presence of sugar on rice growth in heat-stress conditions. Since all EPSs showed improvement in SPAD after the stress, Enterobacter ludwigii, which was not characterized as showing higher PGP bioactivities such as phytohormone production, nitrogen fixation, and phosphorus solubilization, was selected for further analysis. RNA extracted from the embryos of germinating seeds at 24 h post-treatment with EPSs or water was used for transcriptome analysis. The RNA-seq analysis revealed 215 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) identified in rice seeds, including 139 up-regulated and 76 down-regulated genes. A gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis showed that the enriched GO terms are mainly associated with the ROS scavenging processes, detoxification pathways, and response to oxidative stress. For example, the expression of the gene encoding OsAAO5, which is known to function in detoxifying oxidative stress, was two times increased by EPS treatment. Moreover, EPS application improved SPAD and dry weights of shoot and root by 90%, 14%, and 27%, respectively, under drought stress and increased SPAD by 59% under salt stress. It indicates that bacterial EPSs improved plant growth under abiotic stresses. Based on our results, we consider that EPSs purified from Enterobacter ludwigii can be used to develop biostimulants for rice.

Developing multi-functional, environmentally friendly biofertilizers can help reduce chemical fertilizer usage. This study examined single and combined application effects of four plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) strains: AF124 (Rhizobium daejeonense), AF74 (Enterobacter cloacae), AF96 (Pseudomonas putida), and AF42 (Enterobacter cloacae), isolated from alkaline salt-stressed soils from Afghanistan. Physiological features such as nitrogen (N2) fixation, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), organic acid production, and P and K solubilization of bacteria in single or combined cultures in vitro were examined. A single application of AF124 and AF74 showed significantly higher IAA production than the combined application of dual, triple, and quadruple PGPR treatments. Regarding acetylene reduction activity, an N2-fixation activity indicator, a single application of AF124 showed the highest value, followed by a triple application of AF124 + AF96 + AF42. The P-solubilization activity and organic acid production were lower in the single application of AF124 but higher with other strains in the combined applications, which resulted in the secretion of multiple organic acids into the medium. The highest solubilized K value was obtained from the quadruple application compared to other treatments. In the rice inoculation test, all single and combined PGPR treatments increased its growth parameters, such as root length and root and shoot dry biomass. The present results indicate that these four PGPR strains can potentially contribute to developing multi-functional bio-fertilizer formulations.

Nature farming is a farming system that entails cultivating crops without using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The present study investigated the bacterial and fungal communities in the rhizosphere of soybean grown in conventional and nature farming soils using wild-type and non-nodulating mutant soybean. The effect of soil fumigant was also analyzed to reveal its perturbation of microbial communities and subsequent effects on the growth of soybean. Overall, the wild-type soybean exhibited a better growth index compared to mutant soybean and especially in nature farming. Nodulation and arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi colonization were higher in plants under nature farming than in conventionally managed soil; however, fumigation drastically affected these symbioses with greater impacts on plants in nature farming soil. The rhizosphere microbiome diversity in nature farming was higher than that in conventional farming for both cultivars. However, the diversity was significantly decreased after fumigation treatment with a greater impact on nature farming. Principal coordinate analysis revealed that nature farming and conventional farming soil harbored distinct microbial communities and that soil fumigation significantly altered the communities in nature farming soils but not in conventional farming soils. Intriguingly, some beneficial microbial taxa related to plant growth and health, including Rhizobium, Streptomyces, and Burkholderia, were found as distinct microbes in the nature farming soil but were selectively bleached by fumigant treatment. Network analysis revealed a highly complex microbial network with high taxa connectivity observed under nature farming soil than in conventional soil; however, fumigation strongly broke it. Overall, the results highlighted that nature farming embraced higher microbial diversity and the abundance of beneficial soil microbes with a complex and interconnected network structure, and also demonstrated the underlying resilience of the microbial community to environmental perturbations, which is critical under nature farming where chemical fertilizers and pesticides are not applied.

Increasing evidence suggests that the plant rhizosphere may recruit beneficial microbes to suppress soil-borne pathogens, but microbiome assembly due to foliar pathogen infection and ecological mechanisms that govern microbiome assembly and functions in the diseased host are not fully understood. To provide a comprehensive view of the rice-associated microbiome, we compared bacterial and fungal communities of healthy rice and those infected with Magnaporthe oryzae, the causal agent of blast disease. We found that the soil had a greater diversity of bacterial and fungal communities than plant endospheric communities. There was no significant dysbiosis of bacterial and fungal microbiome diversity due to disease, but it caused a substantial alteration of bacterial community structure in the root and rhizosphere compartments. The pathobiome analysis showed that the microbiome community structure of leaf and grain tissues was changed markedly at the pathogen infection site, although the alpha diversity did not change. Correspondingly, the relative abundances of some bacteria and fungi were clearly altered in symptomatic tissues. We noted an increase in Rhizobium bacteria and a decline of Tylospora, Clohesyomyces, and Penicillium fungi in the symptomatic leaf and grain tissues from both locations. According to the inferred microbial network, several direct interactions between M. oryzae and other microbes were identified. The majority of edges in the interaction network were positive in diseased samples; contrastingly, the number of edges was much lower in the healthy samples. With source tracking analysis, we observed a sharp contrast in the source of root endosphere bacteria due to Magnaporthe infection. Whereas the majority (71%) of healthy root bacteria could be tracked from the soil, only a very small portion (17%) could be tracked from the soil for diseased samples. These results advanced our understanding and provided potential ideas and a theoretical basis for studying pathobiome and exploiting the microbiome for sustainable agriculture.

This study aimed to determine the effect of sulfur (S) application on a root-associated microbial community resulting in a rhizosphere microbiome with better nutrient mobilizing capacity. Soybean plants were cultivated with or without S application, the organic acids secreted from the roots were compared. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA was used to analyze the effect of S on microbial community structure of the soybean rhizosphere. Several plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) isolated from the rhizosphere were identified that can be harnessed for crop productivity. The amount of malic acid secreted from the soybean roots was significantly induced by S application. According to the microbiota analysis, the relative abundance of Polaromonas, identified to have positive association with malic acid, and arylsulfatase-producing Pseudomonas, were increased in S-applied soil. Burkholderia sp. JSA5, obtained from S-applied soil, showed multiple nutrient-mobilizing traits among the isolates. In this study, S application affected the soybean rhizosphere bacterial community structure, suggesting the contribution of changing plant conditions such as in the increase in organic acid secretion. Not only the shift of the microbiota but also isolated strains from S-fertilized soil showed PGPB activity, as well as isolated bacteria that have the potential to be harnessed for crop productivity.

Abstract Legume plants form a root-nodule symbiosis with rhizobia. This symbiosis establishment generally relies on rhizobium-produced Nod factors (NFs) and their perception by leguminous receptors (NFRs) that trigger nodulation. However, certain rhizobia hijack leguminous nodulation signalling via their type III secretion system, which functions in pathogenic bacteria to deliver effector proteins into host cells. Here, we report that rhizobia use pathogenic-like effectors to hijack legume nodulation signalling. The rhizobial effector Bel2-5 resembles the XopD effector of the plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris and could induce nitrogen-fixing nodules on soybean nfr mutant. The soybean root transcriptome revealed that Bel2-5 induces expression of cytokinin-related genes, which are important for nodule organogenesis and represses ethylene- and defense-related genes that are deleterious to nodulation. Remarkably, Bel2-5 introduction into a strain unable to nodulate soybean mutant affected in NF perception conferred nodulation ability. Our findings show that rhizobia employ and have customized pathogenic effectors to promote leguminous nodulation signalling.

In a natural ecosystem, endophytic fungi in the internal tissues of plants help to improve the growth of the host plants and to decrease the negative effects of biotic and abiotic stresses without having adverse effects. In Japan, Vicia villosa (hairy vetch), a legume plant with a high capacity to fix nitrogen, is usually used as a cover crop before soybeans to enhance the fertility and structure of the soil. This study aimed to isolate endophytic fungi associated with different tissues of hairy vetch and to evaluate their potential for growth-promoting and biocontrol effects in plants. Thirty-three fungal endophytes belonging to Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were isolated from the leaf, stem, and root tissues of hairy vetch grown under both greenhouse and field conditions. The highest colonization frequency in both the greenhouse and field-grown hairy vetch plants was obtained from the root tissues. All isolates were checked for indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and siderophore production. The maximum IAA content in the culture filtrate (4.21 μg mL−1) was produced by the isolate hvef7 (Cladosporium cladosporioides), followed by hvef18 (Penicillium simplicissimum) (3.02 μg mL−1) and hvef1 (Cladosporium pseudocladosporioides) (2.32 μg mL−1). Nineteen isolates among a total of thirty-three isolates produced siderophores. Moreover, some of the isolated strains could solubilize phosphate and potassium. Most of the isolates showed antagonistic potential against Calonectria ilicicola. The results of this study show that endophytic fungi isolated from hairy vetch have the potential for application as plant growth promotion fungi (PGPF) to promote plant growth and control disease in sustainable agriculture.

Bradyrhizobium elkanii utilizes the type III effector Bel2-5 for nodulation in host plants in the absence of Nod factors (NFs). In soybean plants carrying the Rj4 allele, however, Bel2-5 causes restriction of nodulation by triggering immune responses. Bel2-5 shows similarity with XopD of the phytopathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria and possesses two internal repeat sequences, two ethylene (ET)-responsive element-binding factor-associated amphiphilic repression (EAR) motifs, a nuclear localization signal (NLS), and a ubiquitin-like protease (ULP) domain, which are all conserved in XopD except for the repeat domains. By mutational analysis, we revealed that most of the putative domains/motifs in Bel2-5 were essential for both NF-independent nodulation and nodulation restriction in Rj4 soybean. The expression of soybean symbiosis- and defense-related genes was also significantly altered by inoculation with the bel2-5 domain/motif mutants compared with the expression upon inoculation with wild-type B. elkanii, which was mostly consistent with the phenotypic changes of nodulation in host plants. Notably, the functionality of Bel2-5 was mostly correlated with the growth inhibition effect of Bel2-5 expressed in yeast cells. The nodulation phenotypes of the domain-swapped mutants of Bel2-5 and XopD indicated that both the C-terminal ULP domain and upstream region are required for the Bel2-5-dependent nodulation phenotypes. These results suggest that Bel2-5 interacts with and modifies host targets via these multiple domains to execute both NF-independent symbiosis and nodulation restriction in Rj4 soybean.

Epidemiological studies have indicated that a disturbed circadian rhythm resulting from night-shift work is a potential risk factor for breast cancer. However, the mechanism of increased risk of breast cancer by night-shift work remains unclear, and there have been few in vivo studies conducted to definitively associate the two factors. In this study, BJMC3879Luc2 mouse breast cancer cells were transplanted into BALB/c mice. Mice were maintained under lighting conditions that modeled the two-shift system and were investigated for the effect of light/dark cycle disruption on tumor growth and lymph node metastasis. Circadian dysfunction, which was confirmed by measuring circadian locomotor activities using a nano tag device in our light/dark shift model, did not affect tumor growth. However, a significant increase in the number of lymph nodes with distant metastasis was observed. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, which is an adverse prognostic factor of breast cancer and also indicator of inflammation, also increased. It has been demonstrated that a chronic inflammatory response is associated with cancer malignancy and poor prognosis in various cancers. These results suggest that night-shift work may also affect distant metastasis and prognosis. In addition, we investigated whether dietary quercetin has anti-metastatic activity against light/dark shift-induced metastasis. A diet containing 0.3 % quercetin significantly inhibited distant lymph node metastasis, particularly metastasis to the iliac and kidney lymph nodes. Our results contribute to our understandings of the effects of the external light environment on breast cancer metastasis and provide a glimpse into potential protective effects of dietary quercetin on light/dark disturbance-induced metastasis.

There has been increasing attention toward the influence of biofertilizers on the composition of microbial communities associated with crop plants. We investigated the impact of Azospirillum sp. B510, a bacterial strain with nitrogen-fixing ability, on the structure of bacterial and fungal communities within rice plant rhizospheres by amplicon sequencing at two sampling stages (the vegetative and harvest stages of rice). Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) demonstrated a significant community shift in the bacterial microbiome when the plants were inoculated with B510 at the vegetative stage, which was very similar to the effect of chemical N-fertilizer application. This result suggested that the inoculation with B510 strongly influenced nitrogen uptake by the host plants under low nitrogen conditions. Least discriminant analysis (LDA) showed that the B510 inoculation significantly increased the N2-fixing Clostridium, Aeromonas and Bacillus populations. In contrast, there was no apparent influence of B510 on the fungal community structure. The putative functional properties of bacteria were identified through PICRUSt2, and this hinted that amino acid, sugar and vitamin production might be related to B510 inoculation. Our results indicate that B510 inoculation influenced the bacterial community structure by recruiting other N2-fixing bacteria in the absence of nitrogen fertilizer.

A nature farming system is an ecological farming practice that entails cultivating crops without using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. To understand the diversity and functions of root microbiomes associated with nature farming systems, we compared the root microbial community of rice under nature farming conditions with those under conventional farming conditions. High-throughput amplicon analysis demonstrated a higher abundance and greater diversity of the root microbiome under unfertilized nature farming conditions than under conventional conditions. The application of chemical fertilizers reduced the microbial diversity and abundance of some beneficial taxa important for plant growth and health. Subsequently, we isolated and identified 46 endo- and epiphytic bacteria from rice roots grown under nature farming conditions and examined their plant growth-promoting activity. Six potential isolates were selected for plant growth assessment in insoluble P- and K-containing media. Most of the isolates promoted rice growth, and Pseudomonas koreensis AEPR1 was able to enhance rice growth significantly in both insoluble P- and K-containing media. Our data indicated that nature farming systems create a distinct root microbiome that is comparatively more diverse and supports plant growth under low-input cultivation practices than under conventional practices. The potential isolates could be exploited as sources with potential applications in sustainable agriculture.

Rice production in Ghana has become unsustainable due to the extremely nutrient-poor soils. It is caused by inadequate soil fertility management, including the inefficient application of fertilizers. A practical solution could be the biofertilizers, Azospirillum sp. B510. We performed field trials in Ghana and Japan to compare the effects of B510 colonization on selected Ghanaian rice varieties grown. The B510 inoculation significantly enhanced the rice cultivars’ growth and yield. The phenotypic characteristics observed in rice varieties Exbaika, Ex-Boako, AgraRice, and Amankwatia were mainly short length and high tillering capacity. These features are attributed to the host plant (cv. Nipponbare), from which the strain B510 was isolated. Furthermore, Azospirillum species has been identified as the dominant colonizing bacterium of rice rhizosphere across a diverse range of agroecologies in all major rice-growing regions in Ghana. Our results suggest that the utilization of B510 as a bio-fertilizer presents a promising way to improve rice growth, enhance soil fertility, and sustain rice productivity in Ghana.

To understand the distribution of the cultivable fungal community in plant tissues from nature farming tomato plants, we sampled plants of seven different tomato cultivars and recovered 1742 fungal isolates from 1895 stem tissues sampled from three sites in Japan. Overall, the isolation frequency was low (3–13%) and the isolation and colonization frequencies did not vary significantly as a function of the cultivar. The fungi were divided into 29 unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with 97% ITS gene sequence identity, the majority of which belong to Ascomycota (99.3%). The dominant genera of cultivable endophytic fungi were Fusarium (45.1%), Alternaria (12.8%), Gibberella (12.0%), and Dipodascus (6.8%). The alpha diversity of the fungal endophytes varied among tomato cultivars. Ordination analysis performed to investigate patterns of endophyte community assemblages on the various cultivars revealed that host cultivars had a significant impact on the endophyte community assemblages in all the study sites. Some of the taxa Fusarium, Alternaria, and Penicillium were found on all cultivars, while few were uniquely present in different cultivars. The dominant taxa may be adapted to the particular microecological and physiological conditions present in tomato stems.

Understanding the community composition and diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in an agricultural ecosystem is important for exploiting their potential in sustainable crop production. In this study, we described the genetic diversity and community structure of indigenous AMF in rain-fed rice cultivars across six different regions in Ghana. The morphological and molecular analyses revealed a total of 15 different AMF genera isolated from rice roots. Rhizophagus and Glomus were observed to be predominant in all regions except the Ashanti region, which was dominated by the genera Scutellospora and Acaulospora. A comparison of AMF diversity among the agroecological zones revealed that Guinea Savannah had the highest diversity. Permutational Multivariate Analysis of Variance (PERMANOVA) analysis indicated that the available phosphorus (AP) in the soil was the principal determining factor for shaping the AMF community structure (p < 0.05). We report, for the first time, AMF diversity and community structure in rice roots and how communities are affected by the chemical properties of soil from different locations in Ghana.

Bradyrhizobium elkanii USDA61 is incompatible with mung bean (Vigna radiata cv. KPS1) and soybean (Glycine max cv. BARC2) and unable to nodulate either plant. This incompatibility is due to the presence of a functional type III secretion system (T3SS) that translocates effector protein into host cells. We previously identified five genes in B. elkanii that are responsible for its incompatibility with KPS1 plants. Among them, a novel gene designated as innB exhibited some characteristics associated with the T3SS and was found to be responsible for the restriction of nodulation on KPS1. In the present study, we further characterized innB by analysis of gene expression, protein secretion, and symbiotic phenotypes. The innB gene was found to encode a hypothetical protein that is highly conserved among T3SS-harboring rhizobia. Similar to other rhizobial T3SS-associated genes, the expression of innB was dependent on plant flavonoids and a transcriptional regulator TtsI. The InnB protein was secreted via the T3SS and was not essential for secretion of other nodulation outer proteins. In addition, T3SS-dependent translocation of InnB into nodule cells was confirmed by an adenylate cyclase assay. According to inoculation tests using several Vigna species, InnB promoted nodulation of at least one V. mungo cultivar. These results indicate that innB encodes a novel type III effector controlling symbiosis with Vigna species.

Nature farming is a farming system that entails cultivating crops without using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The present study investigated the bacterial and fungal communities in the rhizosphere of soybean grown in conventional and nature farming soils using wild-type and non-nodulating mutant soybean. The effect of soil fumigant was also analyzed to reveal its perturbation of microbial communities and subsequent effects on the growth of soybean. Overall, the wild-type soybean exhibited a better growth index compared to mutant soybean and especially in nature farming. Nodulation and arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi colonization were higher in plants under nature farming than in conventionally managed soil; however, fumigation drastically affected these symbioses with greater impacts on plants in nature farming soil. The rhizosphere microbiome diversity in nature farming was higher than that in conventional farming for both cultivars. However, the diversity was significantly decreased after fumigation treatment with a greater impact on nature farming. Principal coordinate analysis revealed that nature farming and conventional farming soil harbored distinct microbial communities and that soil fumigation significantly altered the communities in nature farming soils but not in conventional farming soils. Intriguingly, some beneficial microbial taxa related to plant growth and health, including Rhizobium, Streptomyces, and Burkholderia, were found as distinct microbes in the nature farming soil but were selectively bleached by fumigant treatment. Network analysis revealed a highly complex microbial network with high taxa connectivity observed under nature farming soil than in conventional soil; however, fumigation strongly broke it. Overall, the results highlighted that nature farming embraced higher microbial diversity and the abundance of beneficial soil microbes with a complex and interconnected network structure, and also demonstrated the underlying resilience of the microbial community to environmental perturbations, which is critical under nature farming where chemical fertilizers and pesticides are not applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing evidence suggests that the plant rhizosphere may recruit beneficial microbes to suppress soil-borne pathogens, but microbiome assembly due to foliar pathogen infection and ecological mechanisms that govern microbiome assembly and functions in the diseased host are not fully understood. To provide a comprehensive view of the rice-associated microbiome, we compared bacterial and fungal communities of healthy rice and those infected with Magnaporthe oryzae, the causal agent of blast disease. We found that the soil had a greater diversity of bacterial and fungal communities than plant endospheric communities. There was no significant dysbiosis of bacterial and fungal microbiome diversity due to disease, but it caused a substantial alteration of bacterial community structure in the root and rhizosphere compartments. The pathobiome analysis showed that the microbiome community structure of leaf and grain tissues was changed markedly at the pathogen infection site, although the alpha diversity did not change. Correspondingly, the relative abundances of some bacteria and fungi were clearly altered in symptomatic tissues. We noted an increase in Rhizobium bacteria and a decline of Tylospora, Clohesyomyces, and Penicillium fungi in the symptomatic leaf and grain tissues from both locations. According to the inferred microbial network, several direct interactions between M. oryzae and other microbes were identified. The majority of edges in the interaction network were positive in diseased samples; contrastingly, the number of edges was much lower in the healthy samples. With source tracking analysis, we observed a sharp contrast in the source of root endosphere bacteria due to Magnaporthe infection. Whereas the majority (71%) of healthy root bacteria could be tracked fromthe soil, only a very small portion (17%) could be tracked from the soil for diseased samples. These results advanced our understanding and provided potential ideas and a theoretical basis for studying pathobiome and exploiting the microbiome for sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]