As a high-value edible mushroom, Morchella sextelata faces several cultivation challenges, including unstable yields, continuous cropping constraints, and soil-borne diseases. The rhizosphere soil microbial community plays a crucial role in morel growth, yet its dynamic changes across different developmental stages remain poorly understood. In this study, M. sextelata cultivated in the Huangshan City was selected as the study system. Rhizosphere soil physicochemical properties and bacterial community structure were analyzed across six stages: the primordium stage, needle tip stage, mulberry stage, young mushroom stage, fruiting stage, and blank soil before planting. High-throughput sequencing, combined with soil physicochemical analyses, was used to characterize the dynamic rhizosphere bacterial community changes and their associations with soil factors. The results showed that rhizosphere soil remained weakly acidic throughout the growth period. The soil C/N ratio decreased significantly, indicating dynamic changes in carbon and nitrogen use efficiency. Bacterial diversity gradually declined during development, while a relatively stable community structure was established. The dominant phyla were Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes, with relative abundances varying among growth stages. At the genus level, Candidatus Koribacter, Massilia, Mucilaginibacter, Janthinobacterium, and Sphingomonas predominated. Notably, Mucilaginibacter was progressively enriched during growth and showed a positive correlation with total carbon, whereas Massilia was significantly negatively correlated with the C/N ratio. This study clarifies the stage-dependent dynamics of the rhizosphere bacterial community in M. sextelata and provides a theoretical basis for improving cultivation stability through soil microbiome regulation.
Cui et al. (Mon,) studied this question.