Microbiomes of soils and leafy vegetables in urban agriculture systems reflect crop management and local environmental conditions.

Soil and leafy green microbiomes in urban agriculture vary significantly with site-specific management and environmental factors, enabling microbiome-based food traceability.

• Why it matters: Understanding how urban farming practices influence microbiomes is crucial for improving crop quality and preharvest food safety in rapidly expanding local food systems.
• What they did: Analyzing 92 leaf, 92 rhizosphere, and 39 bulk soil samples from seven sites using 16S rRNA and ITS2 sequencing, researchers examined microbial community differences related to management and environment.
• The result: Findings reveal that local conditions shape microbiomes, with machine learning accurately predicting farm sites from microbial data, supporting targeted management for sustainable and safe urban crop production.