The Open Conference Proceedings Journal

2016, 7 : 70-79
Published online 2016 April 08. DOI: 10.2174/2210289201607020070
Publisher ID: TOPROCJ-7-2-70

RESEARCH ARTICLE
 Bacterial Rhizosphere Biodiversity from Several Pioneer Desert Sand Plants Near Jizan, Saudi Arabia

Jorge R. Osman1 , Axel de Zelicourt2 , Ton Bisseling2 , Rene Geurts2 , Heribert Hirt3 and Michael S. DuBow1, *
1 Université Paris-Sud, Laboratoire de Génomique et Biodiversité Microbienne des Biofilms, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Bâtiment 409, 91405 Orsay, France
2 Chemisch Biologisch Laboratorium Bodem, Wageningen Universiteit, 6708 PB Wageningen, Netherlands
3 Center for Desert Agriculture, 4700 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

* Address correspondence to this author at the Laboratoire de Génomique et Biodiversité Microbienne des Biofilms, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris-Sud, Bâtiment 409, 91405 Orsay, France; Tel: +33 (0)1 69 15 46 12; Fax: +33 (0)1 69 15 78 08; Email: michael.dubow@u-psud.fr

ABSTRACT

Life in arid regions and, in particular, hot deserts is often limited due to their harsh environmental conditions, such as large temperature fluctuations and low amounts of water. These extreme environments can influence the microbial community present on the surface sands and any rhizosphere members surrounding desert plant roots. The Jizan desert area, located in Saudi Arabia, supports particular vegetation that grows in the large sandy flat terrain. We examined five different samples, four from the rhizosphere of pioneer plants plus a surface sand sample, and used pyrosequencing of PCR-amplified V1-V3 regions of 16S rDNA genes from total extracted DNA to reveal and compare the bacterial population diversity of the samples. The results showed a total of 3,530 OTUs in the five samples, calculated using ≥ 97% sequence similarity levels. The Chao1 estimation of the bacterial diversity fluctuated from 637 to 2,026 OTUs for a given sample. The most abundant members found in the samples belong to the Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria phyla. This work shows that the Jizan desert area of Saudi Arabia can contain a diverse bacterial community on the sand and surrounding the roots of pioneer desert plants. It also shows that desert sand microbiomes can vary depending on conditions, with broad implications for sandstone monument bacterial communities

Keywords:

Bacterial community, desert sand microbiome, pyrosequencing, rhizosphere, 16S rDNA.