Diversity of symbiotic cyanobacteria in cycad coralloid roots using a short-read rbcL-X amplicon

Cycads are the only gymnosperms forming a symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria in a specialized organ: the coralloid root. This paper investigates the endophytic bacterial community inhabiting the coralloid roots of two cycads from Panama. We sampled coralloid roots from Zamia nana (terrestrial) and Zamia pseudoparasitica (epiphytic). Then, we used the 16S rRNA amplicon marker to describe the entire bacterial community. We also designed a new marker to amplify the rbcL-rbcX spacer and around 100 bp of the rbcX gene, targeting cyanobacteria. We found that using 16S, endophytic bacteria diversity is represented mainly by the phyla Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Proteobacteria. In addition, 16S analyses showed that Zamia species do not share a core cyanobacterial community (using stringent 75