Fig. 1

Microbial community beta-diversity and differential taxonomic biomarkers in pearl millet rhizosphere and bulk soil (BS). NMDS plots illustrating the beta-diversity of (A) bacterial communities, and (B) fungal communities, in the different compartments (root tissues (RT) and root-adhering soil (RAS)) in the four-pearl millet “PM” lines (L220, L3, L253, and L132) along with bulk soil “BS.” The dots correspond to individual samples, where red dots indicate BS samples, green dots represent RAS samples, and blue dots represent root samples. PERMANOVA with a p-value < 0.001. C Bar chart depicting the results of LEfSe analysis conducted on the roots and RAS bacterial communities, and D of fungal communities, of low-aggregation line (LAL, including L220, L3) and high-aggregation line (HAL, including L253, and L132) pearl millet. The chart displays log-transformed LDA scores of bacterial taxa identified by LEfSe analysis, with a threshold of 2.0 for the log-transformed LDA score