Dataset Information

Exploiting the Potential of Bioreactors for Creating Spatial Organization in the Soil Microbiome: A Strategy for Increasing Sustainable Agricultural Practices.

ABSTRACT: Industrial production of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and their crop application have caused considerable environmental impacts. Some eco-friendly alternatives try to solve them but raise some restrictions. We tested a novel method to produce a nitrogen bioinoculant by enriching a soil microbial community in bioreactors supplying N₂ by air pumping. The biomass enriched with diazotrophic bacteria was diluted and applied to N-depleted and sterilized soil of tomato plants. We estimated microbial composition and diversity by 16S rRNA metabarcoding from soil and bioreactors at different run times and during plant uprooting. Bioreactors promoted the N-fixing microbial community and revealed a hided diversity. One hundred twenty-four (124) operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were assigned to bacteria with a greater Shannon diversity during the reactor's steady state. A total of 753 OTUs were found in the rhizospheres with higher biodiversity when the lowest concentration of bacteria was applied. The apparent bacterial abundance in the batch and continuous bioreactors suggested a more specific functional ecological organization. We demonstrate the usefulness of bioreactors to evidence hidden diversity in the soil when it passes through bioreactors. By obtaining the same growth of inoculated plants and the control with chemical synthesis fertilizers, we evidence the potential of the methodology that we have called directed bioprospecting to grow a complex nitrogen-fixing microbial community. The simplicity of the reactor's operation makes its application promising for developing countries with low technological progress.

SUBMITTER: Gutierrez CF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9319577 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Soils play important roles in biological productivity. While past work suggests that microbes affect soil health and respond to agricultural practices, it is not well known how soil management shapes crop host microbiomes. To elucidate the impact of management on microbial composition and function in the sorghum microbiome, we performed 16S rRNA gene and ITS2 amplicon sequencing and metatranscriptomics on soil and root samples collected from a site in California's San Joaquin Valley that is under long-term cultivation with 1) standard (ST) or no tilling (NT) and 2) cover-cropping (CC) or leaving the field fallow (NO). Our results revealed that microbial diversity, composition, and function change across tillage and cover type, with a heightened response in fungal communities, versus bacterial. Surprisingly, ST harbored greater microbial alpha diversity than NT, indicating that tillage may open niche spaces for broad colonization. Across management regimes, we observed class-level taxonomic level shifts. Additionally, we found significant functional restructuring across treatments, including enrichment for microbial lipid and carbohydrate transport and metabolism and cell motility with NT. Differences in carbon cycling were also observed, with increased prevalence of glycosyltransferase and glycoside hydrolase carbohydrate active enzyme families with CC. Lastly, treatment significantly influenced arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which had the greatest prevalence and activity under ST, suggesting that soil practices mediate known beneficial plant-microbe relationships. Collectively, our results demonstrate how agronomic practices impact critical interactions within the plant microbiome and inform future efforts to configure trait-associated microbiomes in crops.Importance While numerous studies show that farming practices can influence the soil microbiome, there are often conflicting results on how microbial diversity and activity respond to treatment. In addition, there is very little work published on how the corresponding crop plant microbiome is impacted. With bacteria and fungi known to critically affect soil health and plant growth, we concurrently compared how the practices of no and standard tillage, in combination with either cover-cropping or fallow fields, shape soil and plant-associated microbiomes between the two classifications. In determining not only the response to treatment in microbial diversity and composition, but for activity as well, this work demonstrates the significance of agronomic practice in modulating plant-microbe interactions, as well as encourages future work on the mechanisms involved in community assemblages supporting similar crop outcomes.

Project description:BackgroundAn urgent transition to more sustainable diets is necessary for the improvement of human and planetary health. One way to achieve this is for sustainable practices to become mainstream. We estimated the potential health impact of wider adoption of dietary practices deemed by consumers, researchers and stakeholders in Sweden to be niche, sustainable and with the potential to be scaled up.MethodsA life table method was used to estimate the impact - changes in years of life lost (YLL) - over periods of 20 and 30 years in the Swedish population had the practices been adopted in 2010-11, when the last national adult dietary survey was conducted. The practices modelled were reducing red and processed meat (by 25, 50 and 100%), and assuming, for each stage, replacement by an equal weight of poultry/fish and vegetables +/- legumes; reducing milk intake (by 25, 50 and 100%); and reducing sugar-sweetened beverage intake (by 25, 50 and 100%). Using population data together with data on cause-specific mortality and relative risks for diet-disease outcomes, impacts were estimated for each scenario separately and in combination, for the outcomes ischaemic heart disease (IHD), ischaemic stroke, diabetes type 2 and colorectal cancer.ResultsFor a "moderate" combination of scenarios (changes at the 50% level), reductions of 513,200 YLL (lower-upper uncertainty estimate 59,400-797,900) could have been achieved over 20 years and 1,148,500 YLL (135,900-1,786,600) over 30 years. The majority (over 90%) of YLLs prevented were related to IHD, and the majority were in men. The singular practice that had the most impact was reducing the intake of red and processed meat and replacing it with a mixture of vegetables and legumes. Reducing milk intake resulted in an increase in YLL, but this was compensated for by other scenarios.ConclusionIf these practices were more widely adopted, they would be expected to lead to improvements in public health in Sweden. Over the long term, this would translate to many premature deaths postponed or prevented from a number of chronic diseases, to the benefit of individuals, society, the climate and the economy.

Project description:Global deserts occupy one-third of the Earth's surface and contribute significantly to organic carbon storage, a process at risk in dryland ecosystems that are highly vulnerable to climate-driven ecosystem degradation. The forces controlling desert ecosystem degradation rates are poorly understood, particularly with respect to the relevance of the arid-soil microbiome. Here we document correlations between increasing aridity and soil bacterial and archaeal microbiome composition along arid to hyperarid transects traversing the Atacama Desert, Chile. A meta-analysis reveals that Atacama soil microbiomes exhibit a gradient in composition, are distinct from a broad cross-section of nondesert soils, and yet are similar to three deserts from different continents. Community richness and diversity were significantly positively correlated with soil relative humidity (SoilRH). Phylogenetic composition was strongly correlated with SoilRH, temperature, and electrical conductivity. The strongest and most significant correlations between SoilRH and phylum relative abundance were observed for Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes, Verrucomicrobia, and Euryarchaeota (Spearman's rank correlation [rs] = >0.81; false-discovery rate [q] = ≤0.005), characterized by 10- to 300-fold decreases in the relative abundance of each taxon. In addition, network analysis revealed a deterioration in the density of significant associations between taxa along the arid to hyperarid gradient, a pattern that may compromise the resilience of hyperarid communities because they lack properties associated with communities that are more integrated. In summary, results suggest that arid-soil microbiome stability is sensitive to aridity as demonstrated by decreased community connectivity associated with the transition from the arid class to the hyperarid class and the significant correlations observed between soilRH and both diversity and the relative abundances of key microbial phyla typically dominant in global soils. IMPORTANCE We identify key environmental and geochemical factors that shape the arid soil microbiome along aridity and vegetation gradients spanning over 300 km of the Atacama Desert, Chile. Decreasing average soil relative humidity and increasing temperature explain significant reductions in the diversity and connectivity of these desert soil microbial communities and lead to significant reductions in the abundance of key taxa typically associated with fertile soils. This finding is important because it suggests that predicted climate change-driven increases in aridity may compromise the capacity of the arid-soil microbiome to sustain necessary nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration functions as well as vegetative cover in desert ecosystems, which comprise one-third of the terrestrial biomes on Earth.

Project description:To follow the hypothesis that agricultural management practices affect structure and function of the soil microbiome regarding soil health and plant-beneficial traits, high-throughput (HT) metagenome analyses were performed on Chernozem soil samples from a long-term field experiment designated LTE-1 carried out at Bernburg-Strenzfeld (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany). Metagenomic DNA was extracted from soil samples representing the following treatments: (i) plough tillage with standard nitrogen fertilization and use of fungicides and growth regulators, (ii) plough tillage with reduced nitrogen fertilization (50%), (iii) cultivator tillage with standard nitrogen fertilization and use of fungicides and growth regulators, and (iv) cultivator tillage with reduced nitrogen fertilization (50%). Bulk soil (BS), as well as root-affected soil (RS), were considered for all treatments in replicates. HT-sequencing of metagenomic DNA yielded approx. 100 Giga bases (Gb) of sequence information. Taxonomic profiling of soil communities revealed the presence of 70 phyla, whereby Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes, Acidobacteria, Thaumarchaeota, Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia and Chloroflexi feature abundances of more than 1%. Functional microbiome profiling uncovered, i.a., numerous potential plant-beneficial, plant-growth-promoting and biocontrol traits predicted to be involved in nutrient provision, phytohormone synthesis, antagonism against pathogens and signal molecule synthesis relevant in microbe-plant interaction. Neither taxonomic nor functional microbiome profiling based on single-read analyses revealed pronounced differences regarding the farming practices applied. Soil metagenome sequences were assembled and taxonomically binned. The ten most reliable and abundant Metagenomically Assembled Genomes (MAGs) were taxonomically classified and metabolically reconstructed. Importance of the phylum Thaumarchaeota for the analyzed microbiome is corroborated by the fact that the four corresponding MAGs were predicted to oxidize ammonia (nitrification), thus contributing to the cycling of nitrogen, and in addition are most probably able to fix carbon dioxide. Moreover, Thaumarchaeota and several bacterial MAGs also possess genes with predicted functions in plant-growth-promotion. Abundances of certain MAGs (species resolution level) responded to the tillage practice, whereas the factors compartment (BS vs. RS) and nitrogen fertilization only marginally shaped MAG abundance profiles. Hence, soil management regimes promoting plant-beneficial microbiome members are very likely advantageous for the respective agrosystem, its health and carbon sequestration and accordingly may enhance plant productivity. Since Chernozem soils are highly fertile, corresponding microbiome data represent a valuable reference resource for agronomy in general.

Dataset Information

Exploiting the Potential of Bioreactors for Creating Spatial Organization in the Soil Microbiome: A Strategy for Increasing Sustainable Agricultural Practices.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets