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The bacterial community structure in four geographically isolated arid regions on the Loess plateau, China, a source of Asian dust, was investigated using a 16S rRNA gene. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and sequencing demonstrated that community diversity in the Loess plateau was low, and a common Alphaproteobacteria phylotype was identified. Phylogenetic analyses of arid soils revealed that most phylotypes had low similarity with known strains in various phyla, suggesting that these regions contain phylogenetically divergent and unknown bacteria.