Shotgun Metagenomics evaluation of soil fertilization effect on the rhizosphere viral community of maize plants

Abstract The need for sustainability in food supply has led to progressive increase in soil nutrient enrichment. Fertilizer application affect both biological and abiotic processes in the soil, of which bacterial community that support viral multiplication are equally influenced. Soil viral community composition and dynamics are affected by soil fertilization with less exploration on organic and inorganic fertilizer application. In this study, we evaluated the influence of soil fertilization on the maize rhizosphere viral community growing in Luvisolic soil. The highest abundance of bacteriophages were detected in soil treated with high compost manure (Cp8), low inorganic fertilizer (N1), low compost (Cp4) and control (Cn0). Our result showed higher frequency of Myoviridae (47%), Podoviridae (46%) and Siphoviridae (90%) in high organic manure (Cp8) fertilized compared to others. While Inoviridae (98%) and Microviridae (74%) were the most abundant phage families in low organic (Cp4) fertilized soil. This demonstrate that soil fertilization with organic manure increases the abundance and diversity of viruses in the soil due to its soil conditioning effects.