Project description:Because of severe abiotic limitations, Antarctic soils represent simplified ecosystems, where microorganisms are the principle drivers of nutrient cycling. This relative simplicity makes these ecosystems particularly vulnerable to perturbations, like global warming, and the Antarctic Peninsula is among the most rapidly warming regions on the planet. However, the consequences of the ongoing warming of Antarctica on microorganisms and the processes they mediate are unknown. Here, using 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing and qPCR, we report a number of highly consistent changes in microbial community structure and abundance across very disparate sub-Antarctic and Antarctic environments following three years of experimental field warming (+ 0.5-2°C). Specifically, we found significant increases in the abundance of fungi and bacteria and in the Alphaproteobacteria-to-Acidobacteria ratio. These alterations were linked to a significant increase in soil respiration. Furthermore, the shifts toward generalist or opportunistic bacterial communities following warming weakened the linkage between bacterial diversity and functional diversity. Warming also increased the abundance of some organisms related to the N-cycle, detected as an increase in the relative abundance of nitrogenase genes via GeoChip microarray analyses. Our results demonstrate that soil microorganisms across a range of sub-Antarctic and Antarctic environments can respond consistently and rapidly to increasing temperatures, thereby potentially disrupting soil functioning. We conducted in situ warming experiments for three years using open-top chambers (OTCs) at one sub-Antarctic (Falkland Islands, 52ºS) and two Antarctic locations (Signy and Anchorage Islands, 60ºS and 67ºS respectively) (see Supplementary Fig. 1 for a map). OTCs increased annual soil temperature by an average of 0.8°C (at a depth of 5 cm), resulting in 8-43% increase in positive-degree days annually and a decrease in freeze-thaw cycle frequency by an average of 15 cycles per year (8). At each location, we included densely vegetated and bare fell-field soils in the experimental design for a total of six environments. Densely vegetated and bare environments represent two contrasting environments for Antarctic soil microorganisms, with large differences in terms of C and N inputs to soils. Massively parallel pyrosequencing (Roche 454 GS FLX Titanium) of 16S rRNA gene amplicons was used to follow bacterial diversity and community composition [GenBank Accession Numbers: HM641909-HM744649], and functional gene microarrays (GeoChip 2.0)(11) were used to assess changes in functional gene distribution. Bacterial and fungal communities were also quantified using real-time PCR.

Project description:The mammalian gut harbors a diverse microbial community (gut microbiota) that mainly consists of bacteria. Their combined genomes (the microbiome) provide biochemical and metabolic functions that complement host physiology. Maintaining symbiosis seems to be a key requirement for health as dysbiosis is associated with the development of common diseases. Previous studies indicated that the microbiota and the hostM-bM-^@M-^Ys epithelium signal bidirectional inducing transcriptional responses to fine-tune and maintain symbiosis. However, little is known about the hostM-bM-^@M-^Ys responses to the microbiota along the length of the gut as earlier studies of gut microbial ecology mostly used either colonic or fecal samples. This is of importance as not only function and architecture of the gut varies along its length but also microbial distribution and diversity. Few recent studies have begun to investigate microbiota-induced host responses along the length of the gut. However, these reports used whole tissue samples and therefore do not allow drawing conclusions about specificity of the observed responses. Which cells in the intestinal tissue are responsible for the microbially induced response: epithelial, mesenchymal or immune cells? Where are the responding cells located? We used using extensive microarray analysis of laser capture microdissection (LCM) harvested ileal and colonic tip and crypt fractions from germ-free and conventionally-raised mice to investigate the microbiota-induced transcriptional responses in specific and well-defined cell populations of the hostM-bM-^@M-^Ys epithelium. Ileum and colon segments were dissected from germ-free and conventionally-raised 10-12 weeks old female C57Bl/6 mice, washed and frozen as OCT blocks. Cryosections were prepared from these OCT blocks and tip/crypt fractions isolated using laser capture microdissection. To investigate the microbiota-induced transcriptional responses specific for specific subpopulations of intestinal epithelial cells, tip and crypt fractions of ileal and colonic epithelium of germ-free and conventionally-raised 10-12 weeks old female C57Bl/6 mice were harvested using laser capture microdissection and probed in an extensive microarray analysis.

Dataset Information

Soil metagenome

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure