Avocado root and soil microbiome

The project examined the changes to the soil microbiome of Persea americana (avocado) treated with organic mulch, a silicate-based mulch or phosphite, and infected with Phytophthora cinnamomi.

Firstly, we hypothesised that the abundance and diversity of the microbiome would increase in response to the addition of organic mulch, and there would be further changes with the addition of mineral mulch or spraying plants with phosphite. Secondly, the presence of P. cinnamomi would change the microbial profiles of the soils in similar ways regardless of the soil additives. Thirdly, the abundance and diversity of the microbiome would be greatest in treatments that suppressed Phytophthora root damage. Fourthly, since avocado root damage from Phytophthora is reduced to a similar extent by the silicate-based mineral mulch or by spraying plants with phosphite, both treatments induce similar changes in the soil microbiome.

The data provided here is the metabarcoding data in excel format. There are six data sheets
1. OTUs per sample with a description of the identity of each sample in the first 3 rows.
2. sequences of each OTU
3. taxonomic ID of each OTU
4. a combined sheet with all information (1-2)
5. sheet 4 with the plastids removed (chloroplasts and mitochondria)
6. selected OTU's; those contributing at least 40 reads. This was the datset that was analysed.