A highly conserved core bacterial microbiota with nitrogen fixation potential inhabiting maize stem vascular tissues

Microbiomes are indisputably important for crop health. However, the synthetical understanding of the structure and function of the crop microbiomes remains lacking. Maize (Zea Mays) is of great importance in food production, and an angiosperm with vascular tissue. Some systemic bacterial colonizers can spread throughout the plant by the lumen of xylem vessels but the current study ignores the functional relation of vascular-inhabiting microbiota to maize growth and development. Here, we collected microbiome data including vascular-inhabiting at six long-term fertilization experiments across a wide range of soil types, climate zones and varieties, to understand detailed features of assembly rules and function of maize microbiomes.