Location: Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research
Project Number: 2092-21220-003-005-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2019
End Date: Jun 30, 2024
Objective:
Establish sampling techniques to estimate the soil temperature, moisture content, chemical and microbial composition across fields and throughout the potato cropping season at two different locations. Quantify and compare these characteristics between nematode infested and nematode free soils. Determine how the chemical and microbial characteristics of soils are influenced by planting nematode resistant and nematode susceptible potato cultivars during the growing season.
Approach:
Both corky ringspot and Columbia root knot nematode resistant (Castle Russet and PA99N82-4) and susceptible (Russet Burbank) will be planted in nematode-infested and nematode-free fields in Hermiston, Oregon (CRKN) and Prosser, Washington (SRN) using a split-plot experimental design. Three total composite soils samples (6 probes each) from soils planted with resistant and susceptible genotypes across nematode infested and nematode free field sites. These samples will be taken at three developmental timepoints (prior to planting, tuber bulking, and after harvest). These samples will be subject to chemical analysis of pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter content, cation exchange capacity, soil phospholipid fatty acids, nematode counts and visual cataloging of microbial content. Total nucleic acids will be extracted from these samples and metagenomic analysis of soil samples will be performed using next generation sequencing techniques3. Relative abundance of microbes within each soil x genotype combination will be determined. Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), implemented in the R statistical software, will be used to identify combinations of soil characteristics (chemical and microbial) that are potentially diagnostic of nematode infestation status and/or cultivar planted.
