Summary
Although interactions between plants and microbes at the plant-soil interface are known to be important for plant nutrient acquisition, relatively little is known about how root exudates contribute to nutrient exchange over the course of plant development. In this study, root exudates from slow- and fast-growing stages of Arabidopsis thaliana plants were collected, chemically analysed and then applied to a sandy nutrient-depleted soil. We then tracked the impacts of these exudates on soil bacterial communities, soil nutrients (ammonium, nitrate, available phosphorus and potassium) and plant growth. Both pools of exudates shifted bacterial community structure. GeoChip analyses revealed increases in the functional gene potential of both exudate-treated soils, with similar responses observed
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