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Open Access Green as soon as Postprint is submitted to ZB.
Plant litter and soil type drive abundance, activity and community structure of alkB harbouring microbes in different soil compartments.
ISME J. 6, 1763-1774 (2012)
Alkanes are major constituents of plant-derived waxy materials. In this study, we investigated the abundance, community structure and activity of bacteria harbouring the alkane monooxygenase gene alkB, which catalyses a major step in the pathway of aerobic alkane degradation in the litter layer, the litter-soil interface and in bulk soil at three time points during the degradation of maize and pea plant litter (2, 8 and 30 weeks) to improve our understanding about drivers for microbial performance in different soil compartments. Soil cores of different soil textures (sandy and silty) were taken from an agricultural field and incubated at constant laboratory conditions. The abundance of alkB genes and transcripts (by qPCR) as well as the community structure (by terminal restriction fragment polymorphism fingerprinting) were measured in combination with the concentrations and composition of alkanes. The results obtained indicate a clear response pattern of all investigated biotic and abiotic parameters depending on the applied litter material, the type of soil used, the time point of sampling and the soil compartment studied. As expected the distribution of alkanes of different chain length formed a steep gradient from the litter layer to the bulk soil. Mainly in the two upper soil compartments community structure and abundance patterns of alkB were driven by the applied litter type and its degradation. Surprisingly, the differences between the compartments in one soil were more pronounced than the differences between similar compartments in the two soils studied. This indicates the necessity for analysing processes in different soil compartments to improve our mechanistic understanding of the dynamics of distinct functional groups of microbes.
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Publication type
Article: Journal article
Document type
Scientific Article
Keywords
alkane monooxygenase; microbial community function; plant litter; soil compartments; waxes; Wax N-Alkanes; Carbon-Dioxide Metabolisms; Homologous Genes Alkb; Hydroxylase Systems; Crude-Oil; Biodegradation; Degradation; Dynamics; Diversity; Bacteria
ISSN (print) / ISBN
1751-7362
e-ISSN
1751-7370
Journal
ISME Journal
Quellenangaben
Volume: 6,
Issue: 9,
Pages: 1763-1774
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Non-patent literature
Publications
Reviewing status
Peer reviewed
Institute(s)
Research Unit Comparative Microbiome Analysis (COMI)