Phosphorus Availability Modulates Rhizospheric Bacterial Communities in Elite and Landrace Wheat Genotypes

Phosphorus is a limiting nutrient directly impacting yield and plant associated microbiome. We studied the effect of phosphorus stress in wheat genotype (C306 landrace vs. PBW 725 cultivar) on rhizospheric bacterial communities at the tillering stage. Rhizosphere bacterial community established by tillering stage with a conserved core dominated by Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. Phosphorous stress and genotype caused minimal restructuring of abundance weighted rhizospheric community evidenced by Bray-Curtis based PCoA and comparable Shannon and Simpson indices. P-starvation increased bacterial richness without disrupting community evenness particularly in landrace indicating selective recruitment of rare rhizospheric taxa. KEGG Orthology separated samples based on genes related to metabolism, redox processed and early functional differentiation in soil microbial communities. The data generated in this study has been deposited in the NCBI under Bio-project code PRJNA1139961. Phosphorus starvation primarily expands the rare biosphere and alters functional potential without disrupting the core microbiome, highlighting early rhizosphere stability with implications for microbiome-informed nutrient management and breeding strategies.