Brassica rapa rhizosphere bacteria associated with plant growth

In a greenhouse timeseries experiment, we grew Brassica rapa and characterized rhizosphere bacterial community changes over time from two days after germination until flowering. Soil inoculum treatments included a growth-promoting soil community or a reduced community colonized through atmospheric deposition. Feature selection techniques were employed to draw causative associations between abundances of several 16S rRNA amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) and increases or decreases in leaf area or biomass. We also described co-occurrences between growth-associated ASVs and other members of rhizosphere communities.