Comparative Study of the Rhizosphere and Root Endosphere Microbiomes of Cholistan Desert Plants. Haloxylon salicornicum

Rhizosphere microbiome plays a significant role in the functioning of plants and provides information regarding plant physiology (osmoregulation) and development. Very limited information has been available on the microbial diversity from arid environments of Pakistan. Hence in the current study, we used Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing based on 16S rRNA gene to compare the microbial diversity from the rhizospheric and non-rhizospheric soils of xerophytes (Opuntia humifusa, Aerva javanica, Zygophyllum simplex and Haloxylon salicoricum) collected from Cholistan desert of Pakistan. Metagenomic analysis indicated that Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were the most dominant phyla detected from the rhizospheric soils while Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were the most dominant phyla detected from the non-rhizospheric soils. Acidobacteria, Bacteriodetes, Planctomycetes, Cyanobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, Choroflexi and Gemmatimonadetes were less abundant phyla identified from all the soil samples. At the genus level, sequences of Bacillus, Enterobacter, Pseudomonas, Burkholderia, Halomonas, Nocardioides and Solirubrobacter were prevalent in the rhizospheric soils while Nocardioides, Meiothermus, Methylotenera, Acinetobacter, Staphylococcus and Streptomyces were abundant in the non- rhizospheric soils.