【Objective】Photosynthesis of terrestrial vegetation is the major force driving carbon cycling between the soil and the atmosphere. Photosynthetic carbon is a primary source of carbon in the soil and affects significantly biomass and composition of the microbial community in the rhizosphere in the form of rhizodeposit. Therefore, if plants different in variety may have different effect on distribution of photosynthetic carbon, rhizospheric microbe may also vary in community composition and microbial utilization of photosynthetic carbon as affected by plant variety. In order to understand and predict carbon cycling in the plant-soil system, a large volume of research work has been done on how to quantify transportation and distribution of photosynthetic carbon in the system. However, so far little is known about effects of plants different in variety on transportation and distribution of photosynthetic carbon in the plant-soil system and on rhizospheric microbe utilizing photosynthetic carbon. The study on input, distribution and microbial utilization of photosynthetic carbon in the plant-soil system is essential to understanding soil carbon sequestration process and soil biochemical processes. 【Method】To that end, a pot experiment was carried out using the PLFA and ¹³CO₂ labeling technique to quantatively study partitioning of photosynthetic carbon and utilization of newly photosynthesizedby carbon by rhizospheric microbe in two maize-rhizospheric soil systems different in maize variety, Zhengdan 958 (ZD) and Shandan 8806 (SD). The distribution of newly photosynthesized carbon to soil microbe was estimated by analyzing the ¹³C profile of microbial phosphlipid fatty acids (PLFA). This experiment had two groups: one labeled for 7 days with ¹³CO₂ (98 atom% ¹³C) and the other labeled with ¹²CO₂ in natural abundance. Based on the difference between the two groups in abundance of ¹³C, the distribution of photosynthetic ¹³C in the maize-rhizospheric soil systems was calculated. 【Result】Results show that Treatment ZD was 20% and 24% higher than Treatment SD in biomass of shoot and root, respectively, and 260% and 159% higher in ¹³C content in the shoot and root, respectively. In comparison with Treatment SD, Treatment ZD significantly increased ¹³C in the shoot and lowered ¹³C in the root. In addition, Treatment ZD significantly increased organic carbon content, ?¹³C value and ¹³C content in the rhizosphere soil, but decreased ¹³C percentage in the rhizosphere soil, as compared with Treatment SD. These findings indicate that the distribution of photosynthetic carbon in the maize-rhizospheric soil system was influenced by maize varieties. Treatment ZD was significantly higher than Treatment SD in ?¹³C value of 11 types of PLFA among the total of 14. Significant difference in distribution of individual PLFA-C percentage was observed between Treatments ZD and SD, indicating that the microbial communities in the two treatments differed in composition. Besides, Treatment ZD was much higher than Treatment SD in 18:2w6,9c PLFA-¹³C percentage and much lower in a15:0, 18:1w7c and cy19:0 PLFA-13C percentage. Treatment DZ was 89%, 65%, 61%, 629%, and 127% higher than Treatment SD in content of gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, fungi and total PLFA-C, respectively, but was 6.4, 3.4, 5.2, 26.2 and 8.6 times higher in ¹³C content in the above-listed microbes, respectively. In Treatment ZD, the PLFA-¹³C content in gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes accounted for 33%, 35%, 2.4%, and 0.3%, respectively, of the total PLFA-¹³C, respectively, while in Treatment SD it accounted for 55%, 11%, 5.9%, and 1.1%, respectively. Treatment ZD was significantly higher than Treatment SD in ratio of fungi to bacteria in PLFA-C and PLFA-¹³C, but much lower in ratio of cyclopropane PLFA to their precursor in PLFA-C and PLFA-¹³C. However, the two treatments did not differ much in ratio of gram-positive bacteria to gram-negative bacteria in PLFA-C and PLFA-¹³C. 【Conclusion】In conclusion, this study demonstrates that maize varieties significantly affect the biomass and photosynthetic carbon distribution in the maize-rhizospheric soil systems, and consequently composition of the microbial community in the rhizosphere and microbial utilization of photosynthetic carbon, and that gram-negative bacteria and fungi communities may be the principal microbial communities that utilize newly photosynthesized carbon in the rhizosphere.