Bacteria dominate the short-term assimilation of plant-derived N in soil

In comparison to inorganic N cycling, only little is known regarding the assimilation of organic N in soil. Therefore, we used 16S and 18S rDNA gene profiling and functional metaproteomics to characterize the composition of a soil microbial community assimilating (15)N-labeled plant-derived organic...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soil biology & biochemistry 2016-05, Vol.96, p.30-38
Main Authors: Starke, Robert, Kermer, René, Ullmann-Zeunert, Lynn, Baldwin, Ian T., Seifert, Jana, Bastida, Felipe, von Bergen, Martin, Jehmlich, Nico
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
16S and 18S rDNA
Actinobacteria
Actinomycetales
Ascomycota
Chroococcales
Metaproteomics
Microbial community
Protein-SIP
Proteobacteria
Pseudomonadales
Short-term leaf litter degradation
Soil
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In comparison to inorganic N cycling, only little is known regarding the assimilation of organic N in soil. Therefore, we used 16S and 18S rDNA gene profiling and functional metaproteomics to characterize the composition of a soil microbial community assimilating (15)N-labeled plant-derived organic matter (OM). Genomic results showed an increase of the abundance of fungi and Proteobacteria related to the utilization of plant-derived OM within the first days of exposure. Similarly, metaproteomic analysis revealed Proteobacteria as the most abundant phylum followed by Actinobacteria and Ascomycota. Finally, protein stable isotope probing (protein-SIP) demonstrated copiotrophic behavior for Rhizobiales belonging to Proteobacteria, Actinomycetales belonging to Actinobacteria and Chroococcales belonging to Cyanobacteria as these phylotypes immediately incorporated (15)N from the added plant tissue. Conversely, the fungal Saccharomycetales and the bacterial Enterobacteriales, Pseudomonadales, Sphingomonadales and Xanthomonadales displayed slower (15)N-assimilation. We showed that, in contrast to the dominance of fungi in the degradation of complex carbon compounds, mostly bacteria were involved in the short-term assimilation of plant-derived N. The combined use of genomic and proteomic approaches allowed to track the flow of N within the soil microbial community. •Characterization of soil microbial community using (15)N-plant material.•Protein-SIP identifies Rhizobiales as most abundant (15)N-utilizer.•Abundance-based grouping for community interaction in soil.
ISSN:0038-0717
1879-3428
DOI:10.1016/j.soilbio.2016.01.009