Rhizosphere Microbiome Diversity Potentially Supports Robust Nature of Field Pennycress (<i>Thlaspi arvense</i> L.) in Dryland Cropping Systems of Eastern Washington

ABSTRACT Field pennycress ( Thlaspi arvense L.) is an annual in the Brassicaceae family and is currently being developed as an oilseed intermediate crop suitable for renewable biodiesel and jet fuel. It displays many desirable characteristics for this role including cold tolerance, a rapid life cycle, and a seed fatty acid profile conducive to bioenergy generation. These traits make field pennycress favorable for winter oilseed cultivation in the inland Pacific Northwest (iPNW). Simultaneously, intermediate crops are an increasingly recognized component of both agronomic sustainability and soil health management. Intermediate crops enhance soil microbial diversity, which benefits both soil and plant health. To understand the impact of field pennycress on soil microbial diversity, two natural accessions and seven experimental accessions were grown at three sites in Eastern Washington. Aboveground biomass and rhizosphere soil were then collected. Soil genomic DNA was extracted from rhizosphere samples and used to generate an amplicon library for bacterial (16S) and fungal (ITS) rRNA sequences. The resulting libraries were analyzed in QIIME2, which revealed that not only did the fad2 deficient line from the Spring32‐10 background have significantly increased aboveground biomass production compared to other pennycress genotypes, but also displayed significantly higher β‐diversity in the rhizosphere community specifically at the site experiencing the driest conditions. ANCOM analysis showed that multiple sequences similar to beneficial plant and soil health enhancing organisms such as Trichoderma spirale , Pseudomonas spp., and Methylobacterium goesingense were found to be enriched in the microbiome of the fad2 Spring32‐10 background also at that site. To add additional context to rhizosphere community data, root exudates from two pennycress genotypes were captured in magenta boxes and analyzed using HPLC. Future work will expand our understanding of the mechanisms by which field pennycress creates diversity in the rhizosphere, thus expanding our ability to cultivate this crop in the iPNW.