Untangling the bacterial community composition and structure in selected Kuwait desert soils

Abstract

Despite hostile climate in the Kuwait desert, perennial vegetation patches persist but are affected by anthropogenic pressures and need to be conserved or restored to their original state. Our goal was to assess the bacterial community composition and structure in both rhizospheric and bulk (non-rhizospheric) soil samples from protected and unprotected sites of four dominant terrestrial vegetation types in the Kuwaiti desert. The bacterial composition and structure was investigated by Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Compared to other desert soils, a relatively high diversity of bacteria was detected in this study. Bacterial sequences were affiliated with 13 phyla, most abundant of which revealed were Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. The bacterial structure also commonly identified as Chloroflexi, Gemmatimonadetes, Saccharibacteria, Chlamydiae, Armantimonadetes, Deinococcus-Thermus and Verrucomicrobia. The analyses revealed that bacterial communities that were dominated by members of the phyla Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria found with higher diversity indices in rhizospheric soils. In addition, samples with high diversity indices as measured by the Chao1 and invsimpson indices were from rhizospheric soils, with some exceptions. The beta diversity indices of samples/habitats assessed via cluster analysis indicated noticeable differences in the bacterial community compositions of the sites. This study demonstrates the effect of protected and unprotected areas with vegetation covers and anthropogenic disturbances on Kuwait desert soil bacterial communities. This study provides the first insights into bacterial communities associated with protected and unprotected areas across the Kuwait desert. This information is essential for evaluating how natural and anthropogenic drivers affect plant-bacteria-soil systems in the Kuwait desert.