Nitrogen fertilizer dose alters fungal communities in sugarcane soil and rhizosphere

Fungi play important roles as decomposers, plant symbionts and pathogens in soils. The structure of fungal communities in the rhizosphere is the result of complex interactions among selection factors that may favour beneficial or detrimental relationships. Using culture-independent fungal community profiling, we have investigated the effects of nitrogen fertilizer dosage on fungal communities in soil and rhizosphere of field-grown sugarcane. The results show that the concentration of nitrogen fertilizer strongly modifies the composition but not the taxon richness of fungal communities in soil and rhizosphere. Increased nitrogen fertilizer dosage has a potential negative impact on carbon cycling in soil and promotes fungal genera with known pathogenic traits, uncovering a negative effect of intensive fertilization.