Application of fungal inoculants enhances colonization of secondary bacterial degraders during in situ paddy straw degradation: a genomic insights into cross-domain synergism.

Rice cultivation generates huge amounts of on farm residues especially under mechanical harvesting. Paddy straw being recalcitrant hinders sowing of upcoming rabi crops like wheat and mustard. Non-environmental sustainable practice of on-farm burning of the paddy residues is being popularly followed for quick disposal of the agro-residues and land preparation. However, conservation agriculture involving in situ residue incorporation can be a sustainable option to utilize the residues for improvement of soil biological health. However, low temperature coupled with poor nitrogen status of soil reduces the decomposition rate of residues that may lead to nitrogen immobilization and hindrance in land preparation. In this direction, ecological impact of two approaches viz priming with urea and copiotrophic fungus-based bioformulation (CFB) consisting of Coprinopsis cinerea LA2 and Cyathus stercoreus ITCC3745 was studied for in situ degradation of residues. Succession of bacterial diversity was deciphered through high throughput whole metagenomic sequencing along with studies on dynamics of soil microbial enzymes. Treatments receiving CFB (T1) and urea (T2) when compared with bulk soil (absolute control) showed an increase in richness of the microbial diversity as compared to control straw retained treatment control (T3). The β diversity indices also indicated sufficient group variations among the treatments receiving CFB and urea as compared to only straw retained treatment and bulk soil. Priming of paddy straw with CFB and urea also induced significant rewiring of the bacterial co-occurrence networks. Quantification of soil ligno-cellulolytic activity as well as abundance of carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZy) genes indicated high activities of hydrolytic enzymes in CFB primed straw retention treatment as compared to urea primed straw retention treatment. The genomic insights on effectiveness of copiotrophic fungus bioformulation for in situ degradation of paddy straw will further help in developing strategies for management of crop residues in eco-friendly manner.