RBacComMt_study
Combining ecophysiological and microbial ecological approaches to assess                 the interaction between Medicago truncatula genotypes and the soil microbial                 communities
To assess how plant and microbes genotypes may interfere, the genetic                 structure and diversity of microbial communities in the rhizosphere of different                 Medicago truncatula genotypes were studied in relation to the plant carbon (C) and                 nitrogen (N) nutrition at the whole plant level. For this purpose, the genetic                 structure of both rhizosphere bacterial and fungal communities was first analysed by                 Automated Ribosomial Intergenic Spacer Analysis (ARISA). Then, the C and N nutrition                 of the plant was estimated using a phenotypic description, a C and N isotope                 labelling and an ecophysiological framework. Finally, the results of these two                 approaches were compared using a coinertia analyse. An early effect of the plant                 genotype was observed on the bacterial communities, while few significant                 differences were detected at the plant phenotypic level. However, at a functional                 level, the different Medicago truncatula genotypes could be distinguished by their                 different nutritional strategies. Moreover, the coinertia analysis revealed that the                 microbiological and the ecophysiological approaches were correlated. The exploration                 of the genetic structure of microbial communities, when combined with an                 ecophysiological approach is an innovative way to progress in our knowledge of plant                 - microbial interaction in the rhizosphere.