Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 24, 2026
08:16
Inoculation Strategies to Infect Plant Roots with Soil-Borne Microorganisms
Published on: March 1, 2022
Invasive plants have stronger root recognition capabilities than native plants
Jun-Nan Liu1,2, Mark van Kleunen3,4, James D Bever5
1School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, 312000, Zhejiang, China.
The New Phytologist
|May 22, 2026
Summary
Invasive plants better recognize and avoid their own roots than native plants, even when soil microbes change. This helps invasive species outcompete natives.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Plant Biology
- Invasive Species Research
Background:
- Intraspecific competition can be reduced by root-mediated recognition and avoidance.
- Dominant invasive plants may possess enhanced root recognition and segregation capabilities compared to native species.
- The influence of soil microbial legacies on these root interactions is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare root recognition and segregation between invasive and native plants.
- To investigate the role of soil microbial legacies in mediating these root interactions.
- To understand how these mechanisms contribute to the dominance of invasive plants.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a split-root assay to assess root allocation strategies.
- Conducted intraspecific root-distribution experiments in conditioned and unconditioned soils.
- Analyzed soil fungal and bacterial community composition to understand microbial influences.
Main Results:
- Invasive plants demonstrated stronger root recognition, reducing root allocation towards conspecifics compared to natives.
- Both invasive and native plants segregated roots in unconditioned soils.
- Native plants lost root segregation in soils conditioned by other plants, while invasives remained unaffected.
- Changes in native root segregation correlated with alterations in soil microbial communities.
Conclusions:
- Invasive plants possess robust mechanisms for avoiding intraspecific competition, independent of soil microbial legacies.
- Native plant root segregation can be disrupted by soil microbial legacies, potentially impairing their competitive ability.
- These findings suggest a mechanism contributing to the competitive superiority and dominance of invasive plant species.
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