METAGENOMIC ANALYSIS AND INVESTIGATION OF THE MICROBIOME IN DATE PALM AND THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT FERTILIZERS ON MICROBIOME DIVERSITY

Abstract

Date palm "Phoenix dactylifera L." is considered a very important plant in the Middle East. This importance is due to its beneficial uses on agriculture, economy, and medicine. The study aimed to identify bacterial biodiversity in the soil of date palm and the effect of different fertilizers on bacterial diversity. Also, the relationship between cultivar type and biodiversity was identified. The metagenomic approach was used to analyze bacterial biodiversity. The biodiversity of bacteria in date palm soil was studied by OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Units). 6356 OTUs and 1164425 sequences were observed in total for all 27 samples. Similar cultivars from both farms did not share similar phylogeny except the Khalas cultivar. Higher relative abundance was shown in Actinobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria classes, followed by Gammaproteobacteria and ACidobacteroa_GP16. The wild date palm had a higher number of unique OTUs than the cultivars from the farms. Different fertilizer treatments had varying effects on bacterial biodiversity. Organic and bio-organic fertilizers positively affect delta-proteobacteria, acidobactria-Gp3, Anaerolinaea, and Clostridia. There was no noticeable effect on mixing other fertilizer types with a high concentration of chemical fertilizers, but classes including Bacilli, Nitrospira, Deltaproteobacteria, Spartobacteria, and Thermomacrobia classes almost have high relative abundance in treatments having high concentrations of chemical fertilizer. This study was the first to study wild date palm soil diversity.