Bacterial Tag-Encoded FLX/Titanium Pyrosequencing for Evaluating Microbial Diversity in a Peanut Rhizosphere.

Bacterial diversity plays a major role in the functioning of any ecosystem. Bacteria decompose pollutants, provide biochemicals to the system, fix atmospheric nitrogen, combat pathogens and act as buffer in the ecosystem. In agronomic ecosystems, bacteria impact nutrient availability and uptake, suppress phytopathogens and remove free radicals during stress in many cropping systems.  Bacteria are among the most abundant and diverse group of microorganisms on the earth.  Molecular methods for evaluation of microbial diversity in soils present us with great capability but also inherent bias and significant challenges with data processing and analyses.  Research and Testing Laboratory currently processes an average of 15 Gigabytes of raw sequence data related to microbial diversity each week often representing up to one thousand different samples.  In this study, different crop management methods were used as variables study changes in bacterial diversity in peanut rhizosphere. Data suggests that diversity changes over time and with both nitrogen and tillage with significant differences throughout the crop season associated with actinobacterial populations.