Objective  Diversity of the microbial communities in soils of cultivated and wild Paris polyphylla var. chinensis fields were compared.

  Method   Total DNA of the microbes on cultivated land grown P. polyphylla plants or at field of the plants in the wild were sequenced using high throughput Illumina Miseq (2×300 bp). Structure and abundance of the microbial communities in soils of the fields were comparatively analyzed by LDA Effect Size.

  Result   The microbial diversity of the wild P. polyphylla lots was richer than the cultivated land. The Chao, Ace, Shannon, and Simpson indexes of the wildP. polyphylla soil were higher than the cultivated counterparts. The communities significantly differed on the abundant phyla of Firmicutes, Nitrospirae, and Spirochaetae, and on the genera of Bacillus, Ktedonobacter, and Paenibacillus. LDA Effect Size showed Firmicutes and Nitrospirae to be the predominant phyla, while Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Tumebacillus,Mucilaginibacter, Nitrospira, Shimazuella, and Singulisphaera the dominant genera in the wild. In the cultivated soil, the Armatimonadetes phylum and the Bryobacter, Aquicella, and Ktedonobacter genera predominated the community. pH and total potassium content of soil were the critical factors affecting the diversity of a microbial community.

  Conclusion  Cultivation and soil nutrients significantly differentiated the microbial composition at a P. polyphylla field.