Red Oak rhizosphere microbiome

This study was conducted in Great Smoky Mountains National Park at two sample locations, Cataloochee and Purchase Knob All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) dedicated plots. Two Red Oak (Quercus rubra) trees were selected, one from each site. Twelve soil cores were collected from around each tree to identify the dominant bacteria (via 16S rRNA) and fungi (via ITS) using next generation sequencing. Three replicate samples were taken upslope, mid slope, and downslope of each tree and pooled for DNA extraction and sequencing from each location, resulting in six total samples. Twelve paired-end libraries were generated for bacteria and twelve for fungi and sequences were all produced on an Illumina MiSeq platform.