ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Symbiotic Interactions
This article is part of the Research TopicUnveiling the Potential of Biostimulants in Agriculture to Enhance Plant Stress Responses and ProductivityView all 5 articles
Organic Fertilizer-Mediated Assembly of Rhizosphere Core Microbiota Contributes to Increased Sugarcane Productivity
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences Yunnan Sugarcane Research Institute, Kaiyuan, China
- 2State Key Laboratory of Nutrient Use and Management, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, Beijing, China
- 3Gengma Dai and Wa Autonomous County Local Industry Development Service Center, Gengma, China
- 4College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
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Optimizing fertilization strategies to enhance crop yield remains a critical challenge in sustainable agriculture. In this study, two field experiments were conducted in Yunnan Province, China, to evaluate the effects of three fertilization regimes—no fertilization (CK), chemical fertilization (F), and combined chemical and organic fertilization (FM)—on sugarcane yield, soil biochemical properties, and rhizosphere bacterial communities. The results showed that the FM treatment significantly increased sugarcane yield at both sites compared to CK and F. This yield improvement was accompanied by increased soil nutrient availability, enhanced enzyme activities, and significant changes in microbial community structure. High-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing results indicated that the FM treatment selectively enriched specific taxa, such as Actinobacteriota and Proteobacteria, and promoted the development of a more modular and stable microbial co-occurrence network. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling further revealed that the FM treatment improved sugarcane yield primarily through microbiome-driven pathways that indirectly enhanced soil biochemical functions. Overall, this study unveils the mechanistic links between integrated fertilization strategies, rhizosphere microbial network stability, and sugarcane yield, providing scientific evidence for sustainable fertilization management in sugarcane production systems.
Keywords: fertilizer, Nutrition soil, rhizosphere, Soil microbial, Sugarcane productivity
Received: 20 Aug 2025; Accepted: 05 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Deng, Zhang, Wang, Ai, Zhao, Li, Li, Deng and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jun Deng
Yong Zhao
Yan Deng
Fusuo Zhang
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