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Soil Fertility and Nutrient Management for Sustainable and High-Quality Horticultural Production

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Dear Colleagues,

Soil fertility and nutrient management are key factors influencing productivity, quality, and sustainability in horticultural systems. The efficient use of soil nutrients is fundamental to maximizing crop performance while reducing environmental impacts, especially in intensive production systems and under conditions of increasing climate variability. In this context, increasing nutrient use efficiency and maintaining soil health represent strategic challenges for modern horticulture.

This Special Issue aims to collect original research articles and review articles presenting advances in soil fertility management and nutrient dynamics in horticultural crops.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

Dynamics, availability, and uptake of nutrients in the soil–plant system;
Soil–plant–microorganism interactions and the role of the microbiome in nutritional processes;
Innovative mineral, organic, and organomineral fertilization strategies;
Biofertilizers, biostimulants, and emerging nutritional inputs;
Soil health indicators and precision diagnostic and management tools;
Nutritional management in protected cultivation and hydroponic systems;
Nutrient dynamics and fertilization strategies in urban and peri-urban horticulture;
Impacts of soil fertility on post-harvest quality, nutritional composition, and crop resilience to stress.

We invite researchers to contribute studies that broaden the understanding of processes related to soil fertility and support the development of sustainable, high-quality horticultural production systems.

Dr. José Félix Brito Neto
Dr. Evandro Franklin De Mesquita
Dr. Rennan Fernandes Pereira
Dr. Alberto Soares De Melo
Guest Editors

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Research

21 pages, 18620 KB

Open AccessArticle

Microbacterium sp. Y107 Is Associated with Enhanced Lingonberry Root Growth and Transcriptional Changes Under Gnotobiotic Conditions

by Enze Yu, Yuzhe Wang, Yurong Liang, Jiayi Li, Zihan Liu, Fanchang Bu, Hongrui Pan, Xinjie Wang, Dunting Tie, Hu Lou and Jie Zhang

Horticulturae 2026, 12(8), 1027; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae12081027 - 17 Aug 2026

Viewed by 361

Abstract

Lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.) has a weak root system and limited nutrient acquisition capacity. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) can promote plant growth by regulating rhizosphere nutrient cycling and host metabolism, but the underlying mechanisms in Ericaceae remain unclear. In this study, the strain Microbacterium sp. Y107 was isolated from the rhizosphere of lingonberry. Using growth-promoting assays (with 9 independent biological replicates, each consisting of 3 plants per bottle as the experimental unit, an inoculum density of OD₆₀₀ = 1.0, a cultivation period of 60 days, and whole-plant harvesting), GC–MS-based metabolite analysis, axenic coculture, analyses of the rhizosphere environment and gene expression, transcriptome sequencing (3 biological replicates per treatment), and qRT–PCR validation, we systematically evaluated the effects of strain Y107 on lingonberry growth, rhizosphere conditions, and host gene expression. CK (control) plants were defined as those inoculated with sterile LB liquid medium. Pearson correlation analysis was also used to assess the relationships among plant growth, soil traits, and physiological indices. Compared with the CK treatment, strain Y107 significantly promoted lingonberry growth (p < 0.05), increasing the fresh weight of the roots by 157.65% and the whole-plant fresh weight by 33.85%, respectively, and increasing peroxidase (POD) activity by 61.11%, while reducing the contents of reducing sugars and proline. Strain Y107 stably colonized the lingonberry root surface and formed biofilms. Y107 treatment resulted in detectable levels of soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, indicating successful microbial colonization. The ammonium nitrogen content significantly increased, increasing nitrogen availability and promoting root nutrient uptake. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the expression of genes enriched in photosynthesis-related pathways, as well as those involved in carbon and nitrogen metabolism and redox regulation, was altered in strain Y107, which upregulated key photosynthesis-related genes such as psbP and ndhU and significantly enriched the cytosolic ribosomal large subunit gene set in a negative direction. Correlation analysis further revealed that strain Y107 optimized the association between lingonberry growth and soil nutrients. Overall, strain Y107 promoted lingonberry growth through stable colonization, enhanced nutrient cycling, promoted lingonberry growth, and altered the expression patterns of genes involved in photosynthesis-related pathways. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Fertility and Nutrient Management for Sustainable and High-Quality Horticultural Production)

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