【Objective】 To study the effects of drought stress on seedling growth and bacterial communities in the rhizosphere of sainfoin.【Method】 Three new sainfoin lines of P1,P2,P3,Onobrychis viciaefolia‘Gansu’ and O. vi- ciaefolia‘Mengnong’ were selected for simulated drought stress experiments. The microcosm experiment was con- ducted under four drought stress treatments by PEG-6000 with a water potential of -0. 8 MPa. Samples of each ma- terial were collected every 3 days. The total DNA of the seedling rhizosphere soil was extracted and deep sequencing of V4 region of 16S rRNA gene was performed to characterize the bacterial community structure of drought-treated sainfoin.【Result】 Results showed that plant height and average root diameter increased,while leaf area decreased sig- nificantly with the extension of stress time. The aboveground biomass,root tip number,total root length,total root surface area,and root volume were significantly increased with increasing drought stress time,whereas underground biomass,root shoot ratio,and root activity significantly increased first and then decreased and reached the most under drought stress of 3 days. The root tip number,average root diameter,aboveground and underground biomass of new sainfoin line of P1 were significantly higher than those of other lines during the whole period of stress. The richness in- dex of Chao1,Ace,Simpson,and Shannon-wiener decreased first and then increased dramatically. Furthermore, Chao1 and ACE indexes were the lowest under drought stress of 6 days,whereas the diversity index of Simpson and Shannon Wiener were the lowest under drought stress of 3 days. Proteobacteria,Firmicutes,Verrucomicrobia,Bacte- roidetes,and Actinobacteria were dominant bacterial phyla. The relative abundance of Proteobacteria dramatically in- creased,while those of Firmicutes,Actinobacteria,and Verrucomicrobia evidently decreased along the stress time, whereas those of Cyanobacteria and Bacteroidetes significantly firstly decreased then increased.【Conclusion】 The re- sults provide reference for sainfoin to resist drought stress and improve water use under drought stress.