## 3 Results
### Genomic Overview of Metagenomic Sequences  
After undergoing quality control, the average sample reads for the four soil samples showed are 10,000, 7000, 8000, and 9000 species count in the R1, R2, B1, and B2 microbiomes, respectively (Figure 2). R1 location had the highest species count when compared to R2 location, indicating that there is more variation of species in R1.  
The DNA sequencing from the four soil samples (R1, R2, B1, B2) using Illumina technology resulted in a bp count for R1 of 2,388,568,202 bp, sequence count of 13,736,515, mean square length of 174 bp, and mean GC (guanine-cytosine) percentahe of 66. R2 had a bp count of 1,390,678,255, sequence count of 7,559,132, mean square length of 184, and Guanine Cytosine (GC) content of 67. B1 and B2 had bp counts of 1,551,871,377 bp and 1,789,010,308 bp, respectively; sequence count of 8,282,394 and 9,753,315; mean sequence length of 187 bp and 183 bp; and GC content of 66% and 65%, respectively. The  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline \multicolumn{5}{c}{**Sample Locations**} \\ \cline{2-5}  & **R1** & **R2** & **B1** & **B2** \\ \hline Organic C (\%) & 1.77 \(\pm\) 0.06 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0.49 \(\pm\) 0.08 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 0.47 \(\pm\) 0.21 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 0.98 \(\pm\) 0.21 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ OM (\%) & 1.83 \(\pm\) 0.41 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0.62 \(\pm\) 0.07 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 0.70 \(\pm\) 0.05 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 1.27 \(\pm\) 0.54 \({}^{\text{ab}}\) \\ N-NH\({}_{4}\) (mg kg\({}^{-1}\)) & 19.67 \(\pm\) 2.30 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 16.23 \(\pm\) 1.73 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 15.67 \(\pm\) 2.79 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 18.37 \(\pm\) 1.23 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ Total C (\%) & 1.60 \(\pm\) 0.29 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0.51 \(\pm\) 0.09 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 0.52 \(\pm\) 0.06 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 1.01 \(\pm\) 0.07 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ Total N (\%) & 0.13 \(\pm\) 0.03 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0.05 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 0.05 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 0.09 \(\pm\) 0.02 \({}^{\text{b}}\) \\ pH (H\({}_{2}\)0) & 6.00 \(\pm\) 0.26 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 6.50 \(\pm\) 0.30 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 6.60 \(\pm\) 0.35 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 5.78 \(\pm\) 0.59 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ P\({}^{3}\)- (mg kg\({}^{-1}\)) & 19.33 \(\pm\) 3.47 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 74.43 \(\pm\) 10.69 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 28.31 \(\pm\) 2.38 \({}^{\text{ac}}\) & 16.95 \(\pm\) 2.40 \({}^{\text{ac}}\) \\ Ca\({}^{2+}\) (mg kg\({}^{-1}\)) & 536.00 \(\pm\) 34.51 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 246.00 \(\pm\) 13.89 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 462.00 \(\pm\) 24.56 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 385.00 \(\pm\) 21.79 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ K\({}^{+}\) (mg kg\({}^{-1}\)) & 349.00 \(\pm\) 32.23 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 220.00 \(\pm\) 17.00 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 223.00 \(\pm\) 41.33 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 342.00 \(\pm\) 32.70 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ Sand (\%) & 72.00 \(\pm\) 7.00 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 80.00 \(\pm\) 9.64 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 84.00 \(\pm\) 2.00 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 72.00 \(\pm\) 9.85 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ Silt (\%) & 6.00 \(\pm\) 1.50 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0.00 \(\pm\) 0.00 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 0.00 \(\pm\) 0.00 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 4.00 \(\pm\) 1.00 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ Clay (\%) & 22.00 \(\pm\) 4.00 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 20.00 \(\pm\) 3.40 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 16.00 \(\pm\) 0.00 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 24.00 \(\pm\) 3.61 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Each value is expressed as mean \(\pm\) standard deviation (n = 3). \({}^{\text{a}-\text{d}}\) indicates a significant difference in values of samples.  
\end{table}
Table 1: Physicochemical properties of the soil rhizosphere (R1 and R2) and bulk soil samples (B1 and B2) of two sunflower fields in South Africa, Palmietfontein (R1, B1), and Bloemhof (R2, B2).  
Figure 2: Rarefaction curve showing species richness in the sunflower rhizosphere and its bulk soil samples.  
metagenomes of R1, R2, B1, and B2 comprised predicted protein features of 12,015,321, 6,253,966, 7,408,001, and 8,657,907, respectively while possessing identified protein features of 4,985,022, 2,953,873, 3,160,887, and 3,688,032, respectively, for metagenomes R1, R2, B1, and B2.