Protist diversity and community complexity in the rhizosphere of switchgrass are dynamic as plants develop.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite their widespread distribution and ecological importance, protists remain one of the least understood components of the soil and rhizosphere microbiome. Knowledge of the roles that protists play in stimulating organic matter decomposition and shaping microbiome dynamics continues to grow, but there remains a need to understand the extent to which biological and environmental factors mediate protist community assembly and dynamics. We hypothesize that protists communities are filtered by the influence of plants on their rhizosphere biological and physicochemical environment, resulting in patterns of protist diversity and composition that mirror previously observed diversity and successional dynamics in rhizosphere bacterial communities.

Results

We analyzed p

SUBMITTER: Ceja-Navarro JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8082632 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature