Vegetos
(An International Journal of Plant Research & Biotechnology)
(eISSN: 2229-4473)
Diversity of bacterial communities colonizing field-grown chickpea distinctly differs across spatial compartments
*Article not assigned to an issue yet
Nysanth N. S., Jagannadham Jaisri, Iquebal Mir Asif, Annapurna K., Pooniya Vijay, Senthilkumar M., Kumar Dinesh, Jaiswal Sarika, Iquebal Mir Asif, Annapurna K.
Research Articles | Published: 19 September, 2026
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Keywords: Bacterial community assembly, Soil microbiome, Plant microbime, Chickpea, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing
Abstract
Soil- and plant-associated microbial communities play important roles in plant growth and health. Although chickpea–Mesorhizobium symbiosis has been widely studied, bacterial communities across different compartments of field-grown chickpea remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated bacterial community dynamics in bulk soil, rhizosphere soil, root, nodule, and shoot tissues of chickpea at the 50% flowering stage using 16S rRNA V3–V4 amplicon sequencing on the Illumina platform. Distinct bacterial communities were observed among compartments. Firmicutes dominated bulk soil (86.2%) and rhizosphere soil (89.5%), whereas Proteobacteria predominated in roots (89.3%), nodules (97.7%), and shoots (70.2%). At the genus level, Paenibacillus was highly abundant in bulk and rhizosphere soils, while Mesorhizobium showed negligible abundance in soil but strong enrichment in nodules (87.5%), indicating selective recruitment during nodule formation. Bacillus was abundant in rhizosphere soil and shoots, whereas roots were enriched with Cellvibrio, Aeromonas and Pseudomonas. Shoots were predominantly colonized by Escherichia/Shigella along with Acinetobacter and Exiguobacterium. Soil samples showed larger and partially overlapping clusters, reflecting higher diversity while root and nodule samples formed distinct clusters with lower variability. The study demonstrates strong compartment-specific bacterial assembly and progressive microbial selection from soil to internal plant tissues. These findings may support development of next-generation microbial consortia for chickpea growth and sustainable crop improvement.
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Author Information
Division of Microbiology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India