Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity and Intragenus Variability in Rhizobacterial Associations with Brassica rapa Growth

Abstract

The rhizosphere, the zone of soil surrounding plant roots, is a hot spot for microbial activity, hosting bacteria capable of promoting plant growth in ways like increasing nutrient availability or fighting plant pathogens. This microbial system is highly diverse and most bacteria are unculturable, so to identify specific bacteria associated with plant growth, we used culture-independent community DNA sequencing combined with machine learning techniques.