Investigating circadian influences upon the rhizosphere microbiome under diurnal conditions

We aimed to investigate 1. whether dysfunction of the plant circadian clock influences the recruitment of microbiota into the rhizosphere and 2. whether diurnal changes in the composition of the rhizosphere microbiome are influenced by the plant circadian clock. We investigated wild type A. thaliana plants, plants with overexpression and loss-of-function in the core circadian clock gene LHY, and bulk soil samples. Samples were collected at dawn and dusk on a single day and we conducted MiSeq amplicon sequencing of bacteria and fungi present.