Structure of root-associated microbial community in natural Arabidopsis thaliana populations.

We examined root-associated microbial communities from three Arabidopsis thaliana populations. A. thaliana plants from natural populations at two neighbouring sites in Germany and one site in France were collected. Samples were taken from the soil, the root-episphere and from the root-endosphere. We characterized the micobial community along the soil-root continuum by DNA amplicon sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA, fungal ITS1 and oomycetal ITS1.