Rhizosphere microbiome associated with the three ecotypes of Andropogon gerardii

In our project we aimed to evaluate the relative importance of the host genetic and local environmental factors on structuring the plant-associated soil-inhabiting microbiomes using a reciprocal transplant garden experiment. Four populations representing three A. gerardii ecotypes (dry, mesic, wet) were planted in common gardens across a natural rainfall gradient in Hays, KS, Manhattan, KS and Carbondale, IL with 580mm, 871mm and 1167mm of mean annual precipitation, respectively. After more than 10 years since the initiation of the experiment, we sampled soils associated with these ecotypes and Illumina MiSeq-sequenced bacterial metabarcode PCR-amplicons. Using these sequence data, we evaluated the effect of the location, ecotype, and grass populations on bacterial communities.