Changing Rhizosphere Microbial Community and Metabolites with Developmental Stages of .

is a medicinal herb belonging to Lamiaceae. It is the only living organism known to produce forskolin, which is a labdane diterpene and is reported to activate adenylate cyclase. Microbes associated with plants play an important role in maintaining plant health. Recently, the targeted application of beneficial plant-associated microbes and their combinations in abiotic and biotic stress tolerance has gained momentum. In this work, we carried out the rhizosphere metagenome sequencing of at different developmental stages to understand how rhizosphere microflora are affected by and affect the metabolite content in plants. We found that the genus was abundantly present in the rhizosphere of and its accumulation pattern appears to correlate with the quantities of forskolin in the roots at different developmental stages. Members of the genus, known for several pathogenic species, were in lower numbers in the rhizosphere in comparison with . To our knowledge, this is the first metagenomic study of the rhizospheric microbiome of , which may help to explore and exploit the culturable and non-culturable microbial diversity present in the rhizosphere.