5 Conclusion
In this study, we characterized soil chemical properties, microbial
communities of rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soils, and root tissue
metabolites of quinoa planted at different densities. With increased
planting density, soil salt content and microbial diversity increased.
However, intense inter-plant competition in high-density planting
resulted in taller and thinner plants with small panicles, but higher
grain yield in gih-density than low-density planting. A high abundance
of up-regulated metabolite S-adenosylmethionine was found in roots in
low-density planting, which might have had a positive effect on plant
growth and development. The mechanism by which S-adenosylmethionine
promotes quinoa growth should be studied further.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the Jiangsu Agricultural Science
and Technology Independent Innovation Fund Project [CX(19)3116],
Forestry Science and Technology Innovation and Extension Project in
Jiangsu Province (LYKJ[2019]07), and the National Key Project of
Scientific and Technical Supporting Programs funded by the Ministry of
Science & Technology of Jiangsu Province (BE2018387 and BE2017310-2).