Investigation of rhizospheric microbial communities in wheat, barley and two rice varieties at the seedling stage.

Abstract

The plant rhizosphere microbiota plays multiple roles in plant growth. We investigated the taxonomic and functional variations in the rhizosphere microbial community, examining both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, of four crops at the seedling stage: wheat, barley and two rice varieties (indica and japonica) seeded in paddy soil. The diversity of rhizosphere communities in these four species were determined. Results showed that wheat and barley had much stronger selection effects than rice for the rhizosphere microbial community. Functional metagenomic profiling indicated that a series of sequences related to glycan, limonene and pinene degradation pathways, as well as some relatively rare functions related to N or S metabolism, were enriched in the rhizosphere soil. We conclude that the four tested crops induced the formation of microbial community with specific features which may influence the plant growth, but the stochastic processes also appreciably influenced the functional selection.