Bacterial but Not Fungal Rhizosphere Community Composition Differ among Perennial Grass Ecotypes under Abiotic Environmental Stress

Abstract

In this study, we used a 10-year long reciprocal garden system, and reports that different ecotypes (dry, mesic, and wet) of dominant prairie grass,Andropogon gerardiican maintain or recruit distinct bacterial but not fungal rhizobiomes after 10 years in an arid environment. We used both 16S rRNA and ITS2 amplicons to analyze the bacterial and fungal communities in the rhizospheres of the respective ecotypes.