eng Science and Education Publishing World Journal of Agricultural Research 2333-0678 2022-06-21 10 1 20 29 10.12691/wjar-10-1-4 WJAR20221014 article Alvychelle Benith Banga benithbanga@gmail.com 1 2 Augustin Aim¨¦ Lebonguy 2 Ang¨¦lique Esp¨¦rance Lembella Boumba 2 3 Joseph Goma-Tchimbakala 3 3 Institut National de Recherche en Sciences Exactes et Naturelles, Brazzaville R¨¦publique du Congo Microbial organic fertilizers have been shown to boost plant productivity. These microorganisms of interest are more numerous in the soil around the roots or rhizosphere. Objective of this study was to assess bacterial communities¡¯ diversity of in the rhizosphere of two legumes, Milletia laurentii and Cajanus cajan, growing on the same soil. First of all, the levels Mg, N, Fe, C total, P, NH4+ and particle size were determined by spectrophotometry, Kjeldahl method, Olsen method, Walkey-Black method, Nessler reagent, DEB method and Robinson pipette method, respectively. Next, bacterial diversity was determined by Sequencing Illumina Miseq of 16S rRNA gene. Results showed that contents of carbon, total nitrogen, ammoniacal nitrogen, phosphorus, iron and magnesium were slightly elevated in Milletia rhizosphere compared to Cajanus. According to the USDA's textural triangle, both soils have a sandy loam soil texture. In terms of diversity, all OTUs (1434) were divided into 30 phyla, 50 classes, 158 families and 314 genera for the 2 soils. Proteobacteria (58.62% - 48.71%), Acidobacteria (27.29% - 9.46%), Firmicutes (8.26% - 7.21%) and Bacteroidetes (13.70% - 2.53%) were most dominant phyla in both rhizospheres (Cajanus - Milletia). The most dominant classes were Alphaproteobacteria (51.44% - 38.90%), Acidobacteriia (26.57% - 8.67%), Bacilli (8.19% - 7.18%), Sphingobacteria (9.83% - 2.50%) and Gammaproteobacteria (4.27% - 3.39%). At the family level, Hyphomicrobiaceae (35.05%-24.22%), Bradyrhizobiaceae (17.32%-11.70%) and Bacillaceae (18.98%-6.49%) were most abundant. Finally, Acidobacterium (26.55%-4.58%), Rhodoplanes (21.63%-7.50%), Bradyrhizobium (17.27%-1.96%) and Bacillus (6.43%-6.29%) were the most abundant genera. Thus, bacterial diversity of the rhizosphere of these two legumes encourages their use for the isolation of bacteria with biofertilizing potential. http://pubs.sciepub.com/wjar/10/1/4/wjar-10-1-4.pdf Illumina - Miseq rhizosphere bacterial diversity