Project description:Drought represents a significant stress to microorganisms and is known to reduce microbial activity and organic matter decomposition in Mediterranean ecosystems. However, we lack a detailed understanding of the drought stress response of microbial decomposers. Here we present metatranscriptomic data on the physiological response of in situ microbial communities on plant litter to long-term drought in Californian grass and shrub ecosystems.
Project description:Project studies an impact of abiotic stressors, including N, P and drought on switchgrass rhizosphere metabolites and microbial communities in marginal soil.
Project description:Soil microbial community is a complex blackbox that requires a multi-conceptual approach (Hultman et al., 2015; Bastida et al., 2016). Most methods focus on evaluating total microbial community and fail to determine its active fraction (Blagodatskaya & Kuzyakov 2013). This issue has ecological consequences since the behavior of the active community is more important (or even essential) and can be different to that of the total community. The sensitivity of the active microbial community can be considered as a biological mechanism that regulates the functional responses of soil against direct (i.e. forest management) and indirect (i.e. climate change) human-induced alterations. Indeed, it has been highglihted that the diversity of the active community (analyzed by metaproteomics) is more connected to soil functionality than the that of the total community (analyzed by 16S rRNA gene and ITS sequencing) (Bastida et al., 2016). Recently, the increasing application of soil metaproteomics is providing unprecedented, in-depth characterisation of the composition and functionality of active microbial communities and overall, allowing deeper insights into terrestrial microbial ecology (Chourey et al., 2012; Bastida et al., 2015, 2016; Keiblinger et al., 2016). Here, we predict the responsiveness of the soil microbial community to forest management in a climate change scenario. Particularly, we aim: i) to evaluate the impacts of 6-years of induced drought on the diversity, biomass and activity of the microbial community in a semiarid forest ecocosystem; and ii) to discriminate if forest management (thinning) influences the resistance of the microbial community against induced drought. Furthermore, we aim to ascertain if the functional diversity of each phylum is a trait that can be used to predict changes in microbial abundance and ecosystem functioning.
Project description:We studied transcriptional regulations under drought stress of wheat roots in genotype "Opata" over two biological replicates. We imposed severe drought stress down to nearly permanent wilting point and flash frozen the roots of opata.
Project description:we performed a genome-wide analysis of AS events in G. uralensis at different time points under drought stress using a high-throughput RNA sequencing approach. We detected 2479 and 2764 AS events in the aerial part (AP) and underground part (UP), respectively, of drought-stressed G. uralensis. Of these, last exon variable shear and exon skipping were the main types of AS. Overall, 2653 genes undergoing significant AS regulation were identified from the AP and UP of G. uralensis exposed to drought for 2, 6, 12, and 24 h. Gene Ontology analyses indicated that AS plays an important role in the regulation of nitrogen and protein metabolism in the drought response of G. uralensis. Notably, the spliceosomal pathway and basal transcription factor pathway were significantly enriched with differentially spliced genes (DSGs) under drought stress. Genes related to splicing regulators in the AP and UP of G. uralensis responded to drought stress and themselves underwent AS under drought conditions. In summary, our data suggest that drought-responsive AS directly and indirectly regulates the drought response of G. uralensis. Further in-depth studies on the functions and mechanisms of AS during abiotic stresses will provide new strategies for improving plant stress resistance.