R. solani suppressive soil metagenomics

Soil suppressiveness against plant pathogens is a promising strategy to control diseases and crop losses. Organic amendments can enhance soil suppressiveness, but the effects are product and disease dependent. In previous studies amendment of keratin (hair meal and feather meal), chitin and cellulose to the soil enhanced disease suppression against Rhizoctonia solani. To investigate this biotic phenomenon soil samples from two Dutch soils (Lisse & Vredepeel) were amended with keratin-rich material and analyzed via metagenomics sequencing.