Natural compounds derived from Brassicaceae plants as an alternative to synthetic fungicides and their influence on soil fungus diversity

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The study aimed to develop a new formulation based on active substances of natural origin to protect plantseedlings against fungal pathogens, and to evaluate the effect of this formulation on fungal communities in arable soil.RESULTS: Coating seeds of common crop plants with ap-coumaric acid (p-CA)-based preparation resulted in a significant reduc-tion in the growth of most of the tested pathogens. When applied to soil, both thep-CA-based formulation and Porter 250 EChad a similar overall effect on soil fungal communities and significantly altered the structure of fungal communities at all of thetimes examined. Shifts in the fungal community composition concerned less than 2% of the total number of amplicon sequencevariants (ASVs). The strongest impact of the formulations on soil microbiota was recorded at the fourth week of treatment. TwoASVs assigned toBotrytisandChromelosporium,known as plant pathogens, and an unidentified ASV fromDiversisporalesencompassing the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), were significantly depleted in soil samples treated withp-CA in compar-ison with Porter 250 EC.CONCLUSION: Thep-CA-based preparation has the potential to be used as an alternative to synthetic fungicides. It shows a sim-ilar effect to Porter 250 EC on the organization of soil communities, determining changes in the character of the communities offungi in general, at any given time. Moreover,p-CA caused a reduction in ASVs belonging toBotrytisandChromelosporium(plant pathogens) and ASVs ofDiversisporales(containing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi) in comparison with the commercialcompound that was analyzed