## 3 Results
### Distribution of the Major Microbiome Phyla in the Infected Soil Samples  
The major bacteria, fungi, and archaea, and their abundance, are presented in Figure 3. Except for Actinobacteria and Gemmatinondetes, the majority of the phyla are more prevalent in the rhizosphere soils from Eruwa (Es1, Es2, Es3, and Ec) than in the rhizosphere soil from Mbuzini (Ms1, Ms2, Ms3, and Mc). Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Deinococcus-Thermus, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, Cyanobacteria, Planatomycetes, Verrucomicrobia, Chlamydia, Aquificae, Spirochaetes, Chlorobi, Deferribacteres, proteobacteria, fermicutes, Nitrospirae, Thermotogae, and Synergistetes are the main bacteria phyla, while Archaea and fungal phyla consisted of Euryarchaeota, Crenarchaeota, and Ascomycota, respectively (Figure 3). In soil samples from Eruwa, Nigeria, and Mbuzini, South Africa, which had been infested by _Striga hermothi_, and in the bulk soil sample, the microbial community was found to be more abundant, including Es1, Es2, Es3, and Ec (bulk soil), as well as Ms1, Ms2, Ms3, and Mc (bulk soil), as shown in Figure 2. Moreover, treatment Ec (bulk soil) had the highest bacterial phyla distribution as depicted by the principal component analysis (Figure 4). Figure 3: The predominant microbiome phyla of _Striga hermothi_-infested soil as revealed by heatmap. Es—Eruwa rhizosphere sample, Ec—Eruwa bulk (control) sample, Ms—Mbuzini rhizosphere sample, Mc—Mbuzini bulk (control) sample. Bacterial phyla were observed to be of higher proportion in the rhizosphere soil samples obtained from _Striga_-infested maize field in Eruwa (Es) than those recovered from Mbuzini (Ms). The bacterial phyla include Proteobacteria (Es1 = 39.11%, Es3 = 40.80%, and Ec = 42.04%), _Firmicutes_ (Es1 = 5.55%, Es3 = 5.23%, and Ec = 7.10%), Planetomycetes (Es1 = 4.30%, Es2 = 3.80%, Es3 = 4.50%, and Ec = 3.6%), Choroflexi (Es1 = 4.51%, Es2 = 3.38%, Es3 = 3.85%, and Ec = 3.55%), Cyanobacteria (Es1 = 3.22%, Es2 = 2.53%, Es3 = 2.76%, and Ec = 2.80%), Verrucomicrobiola (Es1 = 2.83%, Es2 = 2.69%, Es3 = 2.44%, and Ec = 2.15%), Chlamydia (Es1 = 0.14%, _E2_ = 0.09%, Es3 = 0.010%, and Ec = 0.11%), Bacteroides (Ms1 = 2.71%, Ms2 = 2.37%, Ms3 = 2.29, and Mc = 2.11%), Deinococcus-Thermus (Es1 = 0.84%, Es2 = 0.87%, Es3 = 0.86%, and Ec= 0.90%), Gemminomatedates (Es1 = 1.47%, Es2 = 1.47%, Es3 = 1.22, and Ec = 1.30%), and unclassified bacteria (Es1 = 0.34%, Es2 = 0.33%, Es3 = 0.35%, and Ec = 0.35%). Eurvacheota (Es1 = 0.89%, Es3 = 0.81%, and Ec = 0.91%) (Ms1 = 0.82%, Ms2 = 0.81, and Mc = 0.84%) showed higher abundance in both infected soil samples collected from both Eruwa and Mbuzini, while Cranchereota (Es1 = 0.16%, Es3 = 0.16, and Ec = 0.18%) were more predominant and showed higher abundance in infected soil from Eruwa. Ascomycota (Es1 = 1.41%, Es2 = 0.97%, and Es3 = 0.95%) was also observed to have higher proportion in _Striga_-infested soil from Eruwa (Es) (Figure 3). With the exception of Agaromycetes (fungi) (Ms1 = 1.47%, Ms2 = 1.47%, Ms3 = 1.22%, and Mc 1.30%) and Saccharomyces (fungi) (Ms1 = 0.009%, Ms2 = 0.007%, Ms3 = 0.008%, and Mc = 0.005%), the class revealed that there were more fungi in Eruwa than Mbuzini. Eurotimycetes (fungi) (Es1 = 3.01%, Es3 = 2.80%, and Ec = 3.12%) (Ms1 = 2.80%, Ms2 = 2.85%, and Mc= 2.92%) and Pneumocystistomycetes (fungi) (Es1 = 0.35%, Es3 = 0.32%, and Ec = 0.34%) (Ms1 = 0.29%, Ms2 = 0.29%, and Mc = 0.30%) showed higher abundance in both infected soil samples collected from both Eruwa and Mbuzini. Class bacteria showed higher abundance from _Striga_-infested and bulk soil samples recovered from both Eruwa and Mbuzini, with the exception of Epsilonproteobacteria (Es1 = 1.56%, Es2 = 1.31%, Es3 = 1.55%, and 0.48%), Thermotogae (class) (Es1 = 0.57%, Es2 = 0.51%, Es3 = 0.47%, and 0.53%) and Acidobacteria  
Figure 4: The PCA graph of average soil microbial community phyla of _Striga hermothica_-infected soil. Es—Eruwa rhizosphere sample, Ec—Eruwa bulk (control) sample, Ms—Mbuzini rhizosphere sample, Mc—Mbuzini bulk (control) sample.