Enhancing the beneficial root microbiome in canola

草原省份拥有加拿大81%的农田。油菜籽对加拿大农业的重要性仅次于小麦。当土地被用于农业生产时，土壤肥力迅速下降，因为作物从土壤中提取养分，并通过土壤淋洗失去养分。化肥被用来减轻这种养分流失，并维持或提高作物的年度产量。然而，作物对肥料的同化效率不到60%。改善化肥的使用对于养活世界、在保护环境和确保可持续利用不可再生资源的同时提供粮食安全至关重要。作物养分的获取在很大程度上受根系和土壤微生物群的控制，因此管理农田中的微生物可以提高养分利用效率和作物产量。本项目旨在评估油菜籽核心根微生物组组成的一致性和变异性。我们需要验证可靠的微生物分类群的清单，即油菜核心根微生物群中始终存在并丰富的那些分类群的清单。同时，我们还将确定最有利于在油菜和其他轮作作物中建立有益的根微生物群的轮作制度。通过两个田间试验，我们计划通过四个具体目标来实现这些目标：(I)描述不同轮作制度和时间对棕壤和黑土上油菜根微生物群的影响，(Ii)通过量化参与生物固氮、硝化和反硝化过程的基因表达来评估油菜根际N循环的效率，(Iii)确定与油菜作物有效利用氮素有关的根微生物群分类图谱和分类群，(Iv)评估根微生物群提高油菜对非生物胁迫和病原压力的耐受性的潜力。这项提议将产生关于油菜根微生物组核心成员身份的知识，这将转化为实现油菜籽可持续集约化生产的第一步，同时提高油菜籽产量并减少环境足迹。

The Prairie provinces host 81% of Canada's cropland. Canola is second in importance for Canadian agriculture after wheat. When land is used for agricultural production, soil fertility declines rapidly, since nutrients are extracted from the soil by crops and lost through soil leaching. Fertilizers are used to mitigate this nutrient loss, and to maintain or increase annual crop yields. However, the efficiency of fertilizer assimilation by crops is less than 60%. Improving fertilizer's use is critical to feed the world, and to provide food security while protecting the environment and ensuring sustainable use of non-renewable resources. Crop nutrient acquisition is largely controlled by the root and soil microbiomes, so managing microbes in cropland can improve nutrient use efficiency and crop yield. This project aims to assess the consistency and variability in the composition of the canola core root microbiome. We need to validate a lists of the reliable microbial taxa, i.e. the list of those taxa that are always present and abundant in canola core root microbiome. At the same time, we will also determine the crop rotation systems best favoring the establishment of a beneficial root microbiome in canola and in other rotation crops. Using two field experiments, we plan to reach these goals by addressing a series of four specific objectives, which are: (i) to describe the canola root microbiome as influenced by different rotation systems and time, on a Brown and a Black soil, (ii) assess the efficiency of N cycling in the canola rhizosphere by quantifying the expression of genes involved in the processes of biological N2-fixation, nitrification, and denitrification, (iii) identify the root microbiome taxonomic profiles and taxa related to efficient nitrogen use by canola crops, (iv) evaluate the potential of the root microbiome to increase the tolerance of canola to abiotic stress and pathogen pressure. This proposal will generate knowledge of the identity of canola root microbiome core members that will translate into the first step toward the sustainable intensification of canola production while increasing its yield and reducing the environment footprint.