Comparison of rhizosphere bacterial communities of reed and Suaeda in Shuangtaizi River Estuary, Northeast China

Microbial communities in wetland soils play vital roles in biogeochemical cycling of nutrients. In this study, the soil samples were collected from Suaeda, reed and Suaeda-reed hybrid zones in Shuangtaizi River Estuary, Northeast China, and the rhizosphere bacterial communities were compared using Illumina MiSeq sequencing. The microbial richness, diversity and structure of bacterial communities varied greatly in reed and Suaeda. Canonical correspondence analysis and Mantel test indicated that pH was the most significant factor (P < 0.05) in bacterial community assembly. Proteobacteria was the most dominant phylum, accounting for 45.7-58.0% of the total sequences. Thioprofundum, Thiohalomonas and Exi,guobacterium were the predominant genera in Suaeda, while Exiguobacterium, Gillisia, Desulfomonile, Citrobacter, Thioprofunchtm and Acinetobacter were the core species in reed. PICRUSt analysis revealed similar functional profiles of rhizosphere microbiota in reed and Suaeda. Nitrate reduction related genes were abundant for nitrogen metabolism, whereas assimilatory sulfate reduction was the major process for sulfur metabolism.