Abstract
Poplar canker threatens the health and productivity of poplar plantations, but its association with the rhizosphere microbiome remains poorly resolved. We profiled bacterial 16 S V3-V4 and fungal ITS1 communities in root-zone soils from asymptomatic and canker-symptomatic Populus talassica at Qitai, Nileke, and Dabancheng, with three independent composite samples per site-by-status group. Bray-Curtis PERMANOVA detected effects of sampling site, disease status, and their interaction on bacterial and fungal community dissimilarity. Location-based dispersion analyses further indicated that these differences were driven by changes in community composition rather than solely by shifts in group centroids. While no overall differences in Shannon alpha diversity were observed between asymptomatic and canker-symptomatic trees after Benjamini-Hochberg correction, site-level differences were detected. Pseudomonadota was less abundant in diseased samples at all three sites, whereas statistical support for changes in Actinomycetota, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota was site dependent. The FUNGuild Plant Pathogen category had a higher mean abundance in diseased samples at all sites but was significant only at Nileke after correction. Genus-level co-occurrence patterns also varied among sites and represent statistical associations rather than direct interactions. Nine independently recovered fungal isolates were identified as Botryosphaeria dothidea, a major causal agent of poplar canker, and the representative isolate XJAU23 fulfilled Koch’s postulates. In dual culture, a Streptomyces treatment restricted pathogen colony expansion at later observation times. These findings define site-dependent microbial patterns associated with poplar canker and identify experimentally validated organisms for further disease-control research.
Similar content being viewed by others
Identification, characterization, antimicrobial activity and biocontrol potential of four endophytic fungi isolated from Amazonian plants
Flavones enrich rhizosphere Pseudomonas to enhance nitrogen utilization and secondary root growth in Populus
Analysis of endophytic bacteria diversity between two species of genus Polygala with similar medicinal value
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Xiaohu Zhu (Xinjiang Agricultural University) for assistance with the formal identification of the plant material and the Nilka Forestry and Grassland Bureau for granting permission to access the study area and collect plant and soil samples. This work was supported by the Higher Education Scientific Research Program of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Grant No. XJEDU2022P046).
Funding
Project supported by the Scientific Research Program of Universities in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region: Isolation, Identification and Green Control Methods of Pathogens Causing Poplar Canker in Xinjiang (No. XJEDU2022P046).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Supplementary Material 1 (download DOCX )
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Reprints and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhao, J., Zhu, S., Li, Y. et al. Rhizosphere microbial community structure and diversity in canker-symptomatic and asymptomatic poplars.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-73259-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-73259-3
Keywords
Populus talassica
Botryosphaeria dothidea
Streptomyces spp.- Canker
- Rhizosphere microbiome
Source: Ecology - nature.com
