Repository series · ncbi-prjna1404647

Salinity Driven Endophytic Microbiome Profiling of Salvadora persica Leaves and Roots Using 16S rRNA Amplicon Sequencing

This study investigates how plant compartment shapes endophytic bacterial community assembly in the halophytic shrub Salvadora persica cultivated under seawater (saline water) irrigation in a saline desert environment in western Saudi Arabia. Leaf and root tissues were sampled from healthy mature shrubs at Arak Farm (Rabigh Governorate, Makkah Region) and profiled using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing targeting the V3-V4 region. Amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were inferred using a DADA2-based workflow, and taxonomic and diversity analyses were performed to compare bacterial richness, phylogenetic diversity, and community structure between leaves and roots. The dataset provides a compartment-resolved baseline for understanding plant-microbe interactions under salinity stress and supports future functional and metagenomic studies aimed at identifying microbial traits contributing to stress tolerance and ecological adaptation in desert agro-ecosystems.