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Abstract
We used the T-RFLP technique combined with Ion Torrent (PGM) sequencing of 16S rRNA and multivariate analysis to study the structure of bulk soil and rhizosphere bacterial communities of a cactus, Cereus jamacaru, from the Brazilian Caatinga biome, which is unique to Brazil. The availability of water shapes the rhizosphere communities, resulting in different patterns during the rainy and dry seasons. Taxonomic approaches and statistical analysis revealed that the phylum Actinobacteria strongly correlated with the dry season, while samples from the rainy season exhibited a strong correlation with the phylum Proteobacteria for rhizosphere samples and with the phyla Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Lentisphaerae, and Tenericutes for bulk soil samples. The STAMP software also indicated that the phylum Bacteroidetes, as well as two classes in the Proteobacteria phylum (γ and δ), were the most significant ones during the rainy season. The average abundance of the phylum Actinobacteria and the genus Bacillus was significantly greater during the dry season. Some significant genera found during the dry season might reflect their tolerance to the extreme conditions found in the Caatinga biome. They may also indicate the ecological function that microorganisms play in providing plants with some degree of tolerance to water stress or in assisting in their development through mechanisms of growth promotion. Alterations in microbial communities can be due to the different abilities of native microorganisms to resist and adapt to environmental changes.
Highlights
Drought is a complex and natural phenomenon that affects several parts of the world, with negative impacts on society, the economy and the environment
We evaluated the structure of bulk soil and rhizosphere bacterial communities of C. jamacaru during dry and rainy seasons using five different sampling points and quantitative PCR (qPCR), TRFLP, Ion Torrent (PGM) sequencing and multivariate analyses
The number of bacterial 16S rRNA gene copies identified in samples shows a general trend of increased abundance of bacteria in samples obtained during the rainy season, as compared to samples obtained during the dry season
Summary
Drought is a complex and natural phenomenon that affects several parts of the world, with negative impacts on society, the economy and the environment. As suggested in other studies [3,4,5], we hypothesize that the availability of water affects the structure of microbial communities, resulting in different patterns during the dry and rainy seasons in the semi-arid climate of the Brazilian biome called Caatinga. This semi-arid climate of northeast Brazil (3–17uS to 35–45uW) is determined by rainfall index, aridity index and drought risk [6] and covers approximately 8% of the country, an area of approximately 900,000 km2 [7]. Rainfall can be concentrated in December and January, March and April, or May and June (unpublished data)
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