Search of environmental descriptors to explain the variability of the bacterial diversity from maize rhizospheres across a regional scale

The regional scale variability of the bacterial community inhabiting the rhizosphere was studied with soil collected from maize fields located in the Santo Domingo Valley (SDV; Baja California Sur, Mexico), a semi-arid agricultural ecosystem of approximately 200 km2. The bacterial community structure was visualized by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) profiles of PCR-amplified partial 16S rRNA genes of directly extracted rhizosphere soil DNA. SSCP profiles of different SDV sites and an external field site in Germany were evaluated for their similarities and the contributing bacteria were characterized by DNA sequence analyses. SSCP profiles from each site were significantly different from the others, as revealed by permutation of pairwise similarities (P<0.05). In comparison to the German site, SSCP profiles from SDV were more similar to each other despite contrasting soil salinity levels. Correspondence analysis revealed that among SDV sites, salinity levels, soil organic carbon and calcium (Ca2þ) were most influential on the bacterial community structure. Depending on the phylogenetic group analyzed (Bacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Pseudomonas), the importance of these soil variables varied. Interestingly, the East–West direction also revealed an effect, suggesting that future explorations of bacterial diversity patterns should also consider landscape topography in search of explaining patterns of bacterial diversity in soils.