Characterization of maize root microbiome in two different soils by minimizing plant DNA contamination in metabarcoding analysis

A micropore-filtration method was used to reduce the proportion of plant DNA in microbial DNA samples isolated from roots prior to sequencing. We tested the impact of this pre-sequencing filtration methodology and used it to characterize the root microbiome of maize grown on two soils with different fertility levels. The micropore filtration reduced plant DNA contamination and unveiled potential in the N-poor soil for N fixation in roots and phosphate uptake by roots in the phosphate-poor soil. Our methodology and findings allude to the potential capability of plants to initiate plant-microbe interactions under sub-optimal soil fertility.