Effect of legume-cereal mixtures on the diversity of bacterial communities in the rhizosphere

Aboveground plant diversity is known to influence belowground diversity and ecosystem processes. However, there is little knowledge of soil microbial succession in legume-grass mixtures. Therefore, this study was designed to determine the effect of oat and common vetch binary mixtures at three seeding rates on soil bacterial communities. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of 16S rDNA fragments was used to profile the structure of the bacterial community in the rhizosphere. Compared with a monoculture of common vetch and oat, the Shannon-Weaver index and species richness of the mixtures were increased. Thirteen cloned monocultures and mixtures of oat and common vetch soil 16S rDNA sequences were deposited to NCBI. Based on the sequencing results, the bands could be identified as related to Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Cyanobacteria. Common vetch did not have some bacteria relatives to Sphingomonas spp. Some bacterial taxa could be detected in the ratio of 1:1 and 1:2, but not in the ratio of 1:3, e.g. Myxococcales. The results suggested that the belowground diversity could be promoted by mixed cropping systems.