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Seasonal comparison of bacterial communities in rhizosphere of alpine cushion plants in the Himalayan Hengduan Mountains.

ABSTRACT: Positive associations between alpine cushion plants and other species have been extensively studied. However, almost all studies have focused on the associations between macrofauna. Studies that have investigated positive associations between alpine cushion plants and rhizospheric microbes have been limited to the vegetation growing season. Here, we asked whether the positive effects that alpine cushion plants confer on rhizospheric microbe communities vary with seasons. We assessed seasonal variations in the bacterial diversity and composition in rhizosphere of two alpine cushion plants and surrounding bare ground by employing a high throughput sequencing method targeting the V3 region of bacterial 16S rRNA genes. Soil properties of the rhizosphere and the bare ground were also examined. We found that cushion rhizospheres harbored significantly more C, N, S, ammonia nitrogen, and soil moisture than the bare ground. Soil properties in cushion rhizospheres were not notably different, except for soil pH. Bacterial diversities within the same microhabitats did not vary significantly with seasons. We concluded that alpine cushion plants had positive effects on the rhizospheric bacterial communities, even though the strength of the effect varied in different cushion species. Cushion species and the soil sulfur content were probably the major factors driving the spatial distribution and structure of soil bacterial communities in the alpine communities dominated by cushion plants.

SUBMITTER: Chang S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6224804 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:The period when the snowpack melts in late spring is a dynamic time for alpine ecosystems. The large winter microbial community begins to turn over rapidly, releasing nutrients to plants. Past studies have shown that the soil microbial community in alpine dry meadows of the Colorado Rocky Mountains changes in biomass, function, broad-level structure, and fungal diversity between winter and early summer. However, little specific information exists on the diversity of the alpine bacterial community or how it changes during this ecologically important period. We constructed clone libraries of 16S ribosomal DNA from alpine soil collected in winter, spring, and summer. We also cultivated bacteria from the alpine soil and measured the seasonal abundance of selected cultured isolates in hybridization experiments. The uncultured bacterial communities changed between seasons in diversity and abundance within taxa. The Acidobacterium division was most abundant in the spring. The winter community had the highest proportion of Actinobacteria and members of the Cytophaga/Flexibacter/Bacteroides (CFB) division. The summer community had the highest proportion of the Verrucomicrobium division and of beta-PROTEOBACTERIA: As a whole, alpha-Proteobacteria were equally abundant in all seasons, although seasonal changes may have occurred within this group. A number of sequences from currently uncultivated divisions were found, including two novel candidate divisions. The cultured isolates belonged to the alpha-, beta-, and gamma-Proteobacteria, the Actinobacteria, and the CFB groups. The only uncultured sequences that were closely related to the isolates were from winter and spring libraries. Hybridization experiments showed that actinobacterial and beta-proteobacterial isolates were most abundant during winter, while the alpha- and gamma-proteobacterial isolates tested did not vary significantly. While the cultures and clone libraries produced generally distinct groups of organisms, the two approaches gave consistent accounts of seasonal changes in microbial diversity.

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Seasonal comparison of bacterial communities in rhizosphere of alpine cushion plants in the Himalayan Hengduan Mountains.

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