Dataset Information

Rapid Microbiome Changes in Freshly Deposited Cow Feces under Field Conditions.

ABSTRACT: Although development of next generation sequencing (NGS) has substantially improved our understanding of the microbial ecology of animal feces, previous studies have mostly focused on freshly excreted feces. There is still limited understanding of the aging process dynamics of fecal microbiomes in intact cowpats exposed to natural environments. Fresh cowpats were sampled at multiple time points for 57 days under field conditions; half the samples were exposed to sunlight (unshaded) while the other half was protected from sunlight (shaded). The 16SRNA hypervariable region 4 was amplified from each sample and sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq Platform. While Clostridia, Bacteroidia, and Sphingobacteria were dominant classes of bacteria in fresh cowpats, Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacilli were the dominant classes by the end of the study, indicating a general shift from anaerobic to aerobic bacterial populations. This change was most likely influenced by the shift from cattle gut (anaerobic) to pasture ground (aerobic). Reduced moisture in cowpats may also contribute to the community shift since air can penetrate the dryer cowpat more easily. Twelve genera consisting pathogenic bacteria were detected, with Mycobacterium, Bacillus, and Clostridium being the most abundant; their combined abundance accounts for 90% of the total pathogenic genera. Taxonomic richness and diversity increased throughout the study for most samples, which could be due to bacteria regrowth and colonization of bacteria from the environment. In contrast to the high taxonomic diversity, the changes of PICRUSt inferred function profile were minimal for all cowpats throughout the study, which suggest that core functions predicted by PICRUSt may be too conserved to distinguish differences between aerobe and anaerobe. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating that cowpat exposure to air and sunlight can cause drastic microbiome changes soon after deposition in natural environments. Our findings offer important insights for future research characterizing the microbiome of feces collected in natural environments and the impact of cattle fecal contamination on water resources.

SUBMITTER: Wong K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4830129 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Rapid Microbiome Changes in Freshly Deposited Cow Feces under Field Conditions.

Wong Kelvin K Shaw Timothy I TI Oladeinde Adelumola A Glenn Travis C TC Oakley Brian B Molina Marirosa M

Frontiers in microbiology 20160413

Although development of next generation sequencing (NGS) has substantially improved our understanding of the microbial ecology of animal feces, previous studies have mostly focused on freshly excreted feces. There is still limited understanding of the aging process dynamics of fecal microbiomes in intact cowpats exposed to natural environments. Fresh cowpats were sampled at multiple time points for 57 days under field conditions; half the samples were exposed to sunlight (unshaded) while the oth ...[more]

PMID: 27148189

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Project description:Wheat being the important staple food crop plays a significant role in nutritional security. A wide variety of microbial communities beneficial to plants and contributing to plant health and production are found in the rhizosphere. The wheat microbiome encompasses an extensive variety of microbial species playing a key role in sustaining the physiology of the crop, nutrient uptake, and biotic/abiotic stress resilience. This report presents wheat microbiome analysis under six different farm practices, namely, organic (Org), timely sown (TS), wheat after pulse crop (WAPC), temperature-controlled phenotyping facility (TCPF), maize-wheat cropping system (MW), and residue burnt field (Bur), using 16S rRNA sequencing methodology. The soil samples collected from either side of the wheat row were mixed to get a final sample set for DNA extraction under each condition. After the data preprocessing, microbial community analysis was performed, followed by functional analysis and annotation. An abundance of the phylum Proteobacteria was observed, followed by Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Gemmatimonadetes in the majority of the samples, while relative abundance was found to vary at the genus level. Analysis against the Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes (CAZy) database showed a high number of glycoside hydrolase genes in the TS, TCPF, and WAPC samples, while the Org, MW, and Bur samples predominantly had glycosyltransferase genes and carbohydrate esterase genes were in the lowest numbers. Also, the Org and TCPF samples showed lower diversity, while rare and abundant species ranged from 12 to 25% and 20 to 32% of the total bacterial species in all the sets, respectively. These variations indicate that the different cropping sequence had a significant impact on soil microbial diversity and community composition, which characterizes its economic and environmental value as a sustainable agricultural approach to maintaining food security and ecosystem health. IMPORTANCE This investigation examined the wheat microbiome under six different agricultural field conditions to understand the role of cropping pattern on soil microbial diversity. This study also elaborated the community composition, which has importance in economic (role of beneficial community leading to higher production) and environmental (role of microbial diversity/community in safeguarding the soil health, etc.) arenas. This could lead to a sustainable farming approach for food security and improved ecosystem health. Also, the majority of the microbes are unculturable; hence, technology-based microcultivation will be a potential approach for harnessing other cultured microorganisms, leading to unique species for commercial production. The outcome of this research-accelerated work can provide an idea to the scientists/breeders/agronomists/pathologists under the mentioned field conditions regarding their influence over their crops.

Dataset Information

Rapid Microbiome Changes in Freshly Deposited Cow Feces under Field Conditions.

Publications

Rapid Microbiome Changes in Freshly Deposited Cow Feces under Field Conditions.

Similar Datasets

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