Guayule-associated soil microbiome. soil amplicon

Guayule is a rubber-producing perennial shrub native to the arid Southwestern USA and northern Mexico, and it is under development as a major domestic source of natural rubber necessary for national defense, transportation, and medicine. In this study, we characterized the bacterial/archaeal and fungal communities in soil samples collected from a guayule agroecosystem at six time points that represent changes in guayule productivity and growth stage. Our aim was to narrow down the immense number of microbial taxa to a most wanted list that is critical to the entire guayule agroecosystem.