Assessment of microbial diversity under arid plants by culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches

In this work, microbial community structure of two distinct arid plants like ker (Capparis deciduas) and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) was assessed and defined by culture-dependent and cultureindependent approaches on the basis of 16S rRNA and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. The average Jaccard’s similarity coefficient values for cultivated bacteria that is within ker and pearl millet rhizosphere were 0.701 and 0.707, respectively, for non-rhizosphere of ker and pearl millet 0.739 and 0.762, respectively, and for non-cultivable bacteria under ker (0.519) and under pearl millet (0.534). Both culture- dependent and culture-independent methods indicated that in arid crops, microbial diversity is more influenced by soil type rather than plant type and lower Jaccard value for metagenome showed that whole community harbours more diversity because of different microflora than cultivated only. Salinity and temperature tolerance study of bacteria indicated that ker rhizosphere harbours more salinity and temperature tolerant bacteria. Keywords : Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), ribotyping, Thar Desert, microbial diversity, 16S rRNA. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(40), pp. 5860-5868