Soft rot disease causes heavy loss in konjac production every year, which caused by the genus Pectobacterium has been recognized as a major reason why konjac industry has not boomed in worldwide. However, intercropping with economically important trees can effectively control affect soft rot disease epidemics. Consequently, we conducted a rhizosphere bacterial diversity study to assess how intercropping affects soft rot disease using next-generation DNA sequencing. The results demonstrate the Shannon diversity index and Chao 1 index for soil bacteria were relatively steady under intercropping conditions, but changed greatly for the konjac monocrop with the increase in the number of cropping years. Of the 44 bacterial genera with relative abundance ratios of >0.3%, 11 were significantly affected by the duration of continuous cropping and the cultivation mode. Luteolibacter and Bacteroides showed highly significant differences between the monocrop and the intercrop for three continuous years. Pseudomonas was significantly affected by the different cultivation modes, while Myroides was significantly affected by planting age. Intercropping altered the structure and composition of the soil bacterial community, which led to a relative balance of beneficial bacteria, and the relative balance of beneficial bacteria is helpful to reduce the incidence of soft rot.
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