Drought stress affects bacterial community structure in the rhizosphere of Paeonia ostii 'Feng Dan'

Rhizosphere microorganisms are instrumental in plant drought resistance. However, knowledge of how the bacterial community structure in the rhizosphere of Paeonia ostii 'Feng Dan' responds to drought stress is limited. In the current study, the effect of bacterial community structure and diversity in the rhizosphere were investigated using high-throughput sequencing technology. Diversity analysis showed that there was no significant difference in Alpha-diversity between control (Co), drought stress (De), and rehydration treatments (Re), and the bacterial community structures in De and Re treatments were more similar and markedly different from that of the control. Taxonomic analysis revealed that Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were the dominant phyla in the rhizosphere of Paeonia ostii 'Feng Dan', while Gp6 and Gp4 were the dominant taxa at the genus level. Drought stress did not significantly affect rhizosphere bacterial diversity but did cause significant changes in the community structure, with a marked increase in the relative abundance of Actinobacteria. Findings from this study will underpin improvements in drought tolerance of tree peony via the soil microbial community.