Diversity of rhizosphere microbial communities and environmental variables in wild and cultivated Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi and their effect on flavonoid

Abstract Purpose Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi in Yaozhou District in Shaanxi Province is an important Dao-di Herb. However, little is known about the differences between wild and cultivated S. baicalensis rhizosphere microbial communities, and how the differences and environmental variables affect the accumulation of flavonoid active ingredients. Methods We analyzed the interactions between rhizosphere microbial communities- environmental variables, environmental variables- flavonoid active ingredients of wild and cultivated S. baicalensis by high performance liquid chromatography, high-throughput sequencing and multianalytical approach. Results Wild S. baicalensis contained a significantly higher content of scutellarin and baicalin compared to cultivated. Bacterial genera Sphingomonas , RB41 and fungal genera Mortierella , Cordyceps , Phialophora were higher in wild habitat than those of cultivated. The diversity of wild S. baicalensis rhizosphere fungal communities was higher, while the diversity and richness of cultivated rhizosphere bacterial communities were higher. The difference of rhizosphere microbial communities in wild and cultivated habitats may lead to differences in soil nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium nutrients. The KEGG pathways of rhizosphere bacterial communities were mainly enriched in global and overview maps. The relative abundance and species of functional species in the saprotroph in wild S. baicalensis were higher than those in cultivated. Soil SOM, TP, TK and altitude were significantly positively correlated with flavonoid contents ( P < 0.05). Conclusions Increasing the application of organic matter, TN: TP and TN: TK ratio was suggested in the future cultivation, meanwhile pH value of soil should be adjusted. Besides, it is speculated that Sphingomona has potential application value in the cultivated S. baicalensis.