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Invasive plants are known to alter the soil microbial communities; however, the effects of co-occurring native and invasive congeners on the soil bacterial diversity and their predictive metabolic profiles are not known. Here, we compared the rhizosphere bacterial communities of invasive Prosopis juliflora and its native congener Prosopis cineraria using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic mean (UPGMA) based dendrogram revealed significant variation in the communities of these co-occurring Prosopis species. Additionally, Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) based on microbial communities in addition to the soil physiochemical parameters viz. soil pH, electrical conductivity, moisture content and sampling depth showed ~ 80% of the variation in bacterial communities of the rhizosphere and control soil. We observed that Proteobacteria was the predominant phylum of P. juliflora rhizosphere and the control soil, while P. cineraria rhizosphere was dominated by Cyanobacteria. Notably, the invasive P. juliflora rhizosphere showed an enhanced abundance of bacterial phyla like Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes and Acidobacteria compared to the native P. cineraria as well as the control soil. Predictive metagenomics revealed that the bacterial communities of the P. juliflora rhizosphere had a higher abundance of pathways involved in antimicrobial biosynthesis and degradation, suggesting probable exposure to enemy attack and an active response mechanism to counter it as compared to native P. cineraria. Interestingly, the higher antimicrobial biosynthesis predicted in the invasive rhizosphere microbiome is further corroborated by the fact that the bacterial isolates purified from the rhizosphere of P. juliflora belonged to genera like Streptomyces, Isoptericola and Brevibacterium from the phylum Actinobacteria, which are widely reported for their antibiotic production ability. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the co-occurring native and invasive Prosopis species have significantly different rhizosphere bacterial communities in terms of composition, diversity and their predictive metabolic potentials. In addition, the rhizosphere microbiome of invasive Prosopis proffers it a fitness advantage and influences invasion success of the species.

Ayurveda is one of the ancient systems of medicine which is widely practised as a personalized scientific approach towards the general wellness. Ayurvedic prakriti is broadly defined as the phenotypes which are determined on the basis of physical, psychological and physiological traits irrespective of their social, ethnic, dietary and geographical stature. Prakriti is the constitution of a person, which comprises vata, pitta, and kapha and is a key determinant of how one individual is different from the other. Human microbiome is considered the 'latest discovered' human organ and microbiome research reiterates the fundamental principles of Ayurveda for creating a healthy gut environment by maintaining the individual-specific microbiome. Hence, it is important to understand the association of human microbiome with the Ayurvedic prakriti of an individual. Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis of human microbiome from the gut, oral and skin samples of healthy individuals (n=18) by 16S rRNA gene-based metagenomics using standard QIIME pipeline. In the three different prakriti samples differential abundance of Bacteroides, Desulfovibrio, Parabacteroides, Slackia, and Succinivibrio was observed in the gut microbiome. Analysis also revealed prakriti-specific presence of Mogibacterium, Propionibacterium, Pyramidobacter, Rhodococcus in the kapha prakriti individuals Planomicrobium, Hyphomicrobium, Novosphingobium in the pitta prakriti individuals and Carnobacterium, Robiginitalea, Cetobacterium, Psychrobacter in the vata prakriti individuals. Similarly, the oral and skin microbiome also revealed presence of prakriti-specific differential abundance of diverse bacterial genera. Prakriti-specific presence of bacterial taxa was recorded and only 42% microbiome in the oral samples and 52% microbiome in the skin samples were shared. Bacteria known for preventing gut inflammation by digesting the resistant starch were abundant in the pitta prakriti individuals, who are more prone to develop gut-inflammation-related disorders. In summary, human gut, oral and skin microbiome showed presence or high abundance of few bacterial taxa across three prakriti types, suggesting their specific physiological importance.