Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in soils where astragalus had grown for 2 years were similar to those in the abandoned farmland.

Purpose: Astragalus-cultivated soils are enriched in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF); however, the community changes of AMF between years in stragalus-cultivated soils are still unclear. Methods: To illustrate this, using high-throughput amplicon sequencing and quantitative real-time PCR, we analyzed the AMF communities of the abandoned farmlands and interannual astragalus-cultivated soils for 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-years, including community composition, dominant, core, specific and significantly fluctuating AMF, co-occurrence network, alpha diversity, and beta diversity. Results: A total of 74 OTUs were classified into one phylum, Glomeromycota; one class, Glomeromycetes; four orders; four families; and six genera. The 2-year soil had the highest number of reads among the interannual soils. Only one OTU was shared among all interannual soils. The treatments significantly affected the Ace, Shannoneven, and Shannon estimators of the communities. The 2-year soil had the highest richness, evenness, and diversity among all interannual soils and was the closest to the abandoned farmland in terms of alpha diversity. Conclusion: Among the interannual soils, the 2-year soil may be more suitable for