Bacterial communities in soybean rhizosphere in response to soil type, soybean genotype, and their growth stage

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted in this study in order to investigate the impacts of soil type, soybean genotype, and the reproductive growth stage on bacterial communities in the soybean rhizosphere. Communities were evaluated by principal component analysis of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) banding patterns and sequencing of partial 16S rDNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplicons. A pot experiment analyzing three soybean genotypes grown in two different types of soil (Black soil and Dark Brown soil) indicated that soil type was the major factor in influencing the bacterial communities in the soybean rhizosphere, with a more significant effect observed in the Black soil samples than in the Dark Brown soil samples. A field experiment was conducted in Dark Brown soil using three soybean genotypes, and the results gleaned from both pot and field experiments indicated that bacterial communities in the soybean rhizosphere changed with growth stages, and higher number of DGGE bands observed in early reproductive growth stages, while surprisingly, a significant impact of genotype on the bacterial communities was not observed in these experiments. However, a plate culture experiment targeting the culturable bacterial communities detected a remarkable difference in the community structures of the rhizosphere between the two soybean genotypes, suggesting that a small portion of the total bacteria was influenced by genotype. Sequence analysis of DGGE bands indicated that bacterial phyla of Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Nitrospirae, Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia and Acidobacteria commonly inhabit the soybean rhizosphere.