Compositional and functional profiling of the rhizosphere microbiomes of the invasive weed <i>Ageratina adenophora</i> and native plants

The rhizosphere soil microbiome (RSM) plays an important role in the nutritional metabolism of exotic weed Ageratina adenophora . However, our understanding composition and metabolic activity this is limited. We used high-throughput sequencing bacterial 16S rRNA genes fungal internal transcribed spacer fragments combination with transcriptome analysis to compare features RSMs A. native plant species Artemisia indica Imperata cylindrica cohabitates I. grows uninvaded areas. found fungi belonging phyla Ascomycota Basidiomycota bacteria Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria Bacteroidetes were highly abundant both species. RSM differed varying degrees relative abundances genera, levels expression functional from those was more metabolically active than these, as indicated by marked increases associated cell wall, membrane, envelope biogenesis, energy production conversion, transport carbohydrates, amino acids, coenzymes, nucleotides, secondary metabolites. contributed most significantly these differences. activities less Fungal communities adenophora. These included arbuscular mycorrhizal Glomeromycota. different three populations may explain why successful colonizing soils two populations.