Metagenomic samples of maize rhizosphere soils from Mafikeng
The libraries were prepared using Nextera DNA Flex library preparation kit (Illumina) following the manufacturer's user guide. The initial concentration of DNA was evaluated using the Qubit dsDNA HS Assay Kit (Life Technologies). Because of low DNA concentration, 5 samples were cleaned and concentrated using DNEasy PowerClean Pro Cleanup Kit (Qiagen). The concentration of cleaned DNA was again evaluated using the Qubit dsDNA HS Assay Kit (Life Technologies). 20-50 ng DNA was used to prepare the libraries. The samples underwent the simultaneous fragmentation and addition of adapter sequences. These adapters are utilized during a limited-cycle PCR in which unique indices were added to the sample. Following the library preparation, the final concentration of the libraries was measured using the Qubit dsDNA HS Assay Kit (Life Technologies), and the average library size was determined using the Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies). The libraries were pooled and diluted (to 0.6nM) and sequenced paired end for 300 cycles using the NovaSeq system (Illumina).