High‐throughput sequencing reveals bacterial community composition in the rhizosphere of the invasive plant Flaveria bidentis

Abstract

SummaryBacteria are important soil components as both decomposers and plant symbionts and play a major role in plant–microbe interaction processes. However, little is known about the diversity of bacterial communities in the rhizosphere of the invasive plant Flaveria bidentis. In this study, we used high‐throughput sequencing to investigate bacterial communities in the rhizosphere of F. bidentis, compared with those of native crop maize and control plant Setaria viridis. We obtained >70 000 analysis reads from the three samples and used bioinformatics and multivariate statistics to analyse the results. An analysis of indicators showed that F. bidentis samples had lower richness but higher diversity than maize and S. viridis samples. Operational taxonomic unit (OTU)‐based bioinformatics and statistical analysis also demonstrated that F. bidentis significantly altered the bacterial rhizosphere community. Higher abundance of Actinobacteria and lower abundance of Firmicutes were observed in F. bidentis rhizosphere than those of maize and S. viridis. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed the correlations between soil bacteria communities, soil nutrients and the abundance of bacterial groups. Our results provide a starting point for investigations of the effects of F. bidentis on soil bacterial diversity and a theoretical basis for the microecological mechanism of F. bidentis invasion.