Integrated analysis reveals an association between the rhizosphere microbiome and root rot of arecanut palm

The rhizosphere microbial community is crucial to plant health. Many studies have explored the association between the rhizosphere microbiome and plant disease. However, few studies have focused on root rot in arecanut palm, a disease causing devastating effects and thus resulting in economic losses that considerably affect the development of the arecanut industry. Here, rhizosphere samples were collected from both healthy arecanut palm plants and root-rotted arecanut palm plants, and the microbial communities were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing. The root-rotted samples exhibited distinct microbial community richness, diversity, and composition compared with the healthy samples, which was associated with pH according to the Mantel test. Identified potential plant pathogens, including Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chytridiomycota, and Mortierellomycota, were significantly enriched in the root-rotted samples. In contrast, potentially beneficial plant microbes, such as Acidobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes, were significantly depleted in the root-rotted samples. Co-occurrence networks were constructed to further identify microbial relationships in the root-rotted samples. These findings revealed ecological imbalance among beneficial bacteria in the root-rotted samples. The present study therefore provides an integrated view of the association between the microbial community and root rot in arecanut palm.