Shotgun metagenomic sequencing data of sunflower rhizosphere microbial community in South Africa

This dataset presents shotgun metagenomic sequencing of sunflower rhizosphere microbiome in Bloemhof, South Africa. Data were collected to decipher the structure and function in the sunflower microbial community. Illumina HiSeq platform using next generation sequencing of the DNA was carried out. The metagenome comprised 8,991,566 sequences totaling 1,607,022,279 bp size and 66% GC content. The metagenome was deposited into the NCBI database and can be accessed with the SRA accession number SRR10418054. An online metagenome server (MG RAST) using the subsystem database revealed bacteria had the highest taxonomical representation with 98.47%, eukaryote at 1.23%, and archaea at 0.20%. The most abundant genera were the Conexibacter (17%), Nocardioides (8%), Streptomyces (7%), Geodermatophilus (6%), Methylobacterium (5%), and Burkholderia (4%). MG-RAST assisted analysis also revealed functional annotation based on subsystem, carbohydrates sequence had 13.74%, clustering based subsystem 12.93%, amino acids and derivatives 10.30% coupled with other useful functional traits needed for plant growth and health.