Soil depth determines the microbial communities in <i>Sorghum bicolor</i> fields within a uniform regional environment.

ABSTRACT: Sorghum bicolor, an important global crop, adapted to thrive in hotter and drier conditions than maize or rice, has deep roots that interact with a stratified soil microbiome that plays a crucial role in plant health, growth, and carbon storage. Microbiome studies on agricultural soils, particularly fields growing S. bicolor, have been mostly limited to surface soils (<30 cm). Here we investigated the abiotic factors of soil properties, field location, depth, and the biotic factors of sorghum type across 38 genotypes of the soil microbiome. Utilizing 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, our analysis reveals significant changes in microbial composition and decreasing diversity at increasing soil depths within S. bicolor fields, regardless of genotype or field, with microb

SUBMITTER: Murray ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12131775 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature