Project description:Microbial communities in the rhizosphere make significant contributions to crop health and nutrient cycling. However, their ability to perform important biogeochemical processes remains uncharacterized. Important functional genes, which characterize the rhizosphere microbial community, were identified to understand metabolic capabilities in the maize rhizosphere using GeoChip 3.0-based functional gene array method. Triplicate samples were taken for both rhizosphere and bulk soil, in which each individual sample was a pool of four plants or soil cores. To determine the abundance of functional genes in the rhizosphere and bulk soils, GeoChip 3.0 was used.
Project description:Microbial communities in the rhizosphere make significant contributions to crop health and nutrient cycling. However, their ability to perform important biogeochemical processes remains uncharacterized. Important functional genes, which characterize the rhizosphere microbial community, were identified to understand metabolic capabilities in the maize rhizosphere using GeoChip 3.0-based functional gene array method. Triplicate samples were taken for both rhizosphere and bulk soil, in which each individual sample was a pool of four plants or soil cores. To determine the abundance of functional genes in the rhizosphere and bulk soils, GeoChip 3.0 was used.
Project description:Understanding the environmental factors that shape microbial communities is crucial, especially in extreme environments, like Antarctica. Two main forces were reported to influence Antarctic soil microbes: birds and plants. Both birds and plants are currently undergoing unprecedented changes in their distribution and abundance due to global warming. However, we need to clearly understand the relationship between plants, birds and soil microorganisms. We therefore collected rhizosphere and bulk soils from six different sampling sites subjected to different levels of bird influence and colonized by Colobanthus quitensis and Deschampsia antarctica in the Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Maritime Antarctic. Microarray and qPCR assays targeting 16S rRNA genes of specific taxa were used to assess microbial community structure, composition and abundance and analyzed with a range of soil physico-chemical parameters. The results indicated significant rhizosphere effects in four out of the six sites, including areas with different levels of bird influence. Acidobacteria were significantly more abundant in soils with little bird influence (low nitrogen) and in bulk soil. In contrast, Actinobacteria were significantly more abundant in the rhizosphere of both plant species. At two of the sampling sites under strong bird influence (penguin colonies), Firmicutes were significantly more abundant in D. antarctica rhizosphere but not in C. quitensis rhizosphere. The Firmicutes were also positively and significantly correlated to the nitrogen concentrations in the soil. We conclude that the microbial communities in Antarctic soils are driven both by bird and plants, and that the effect is taxa-specific.
Project description:Leafy green vegetables, such as lettuce, have been increasingly implicated in outbreaks of foodborne illnesses due to contamination by Escherichia coli O157:H7. While E. coli can survive in soils, colonize plants, and survive on produce, very little is known about the interaction of E. coli with the roots of growing lettuce plants. In these studies a combination of microarray analyses and microbial genetics were used to gain a comprehensive understanding of bacterial genes involved in the colonization and growth of E. coli K12 on lettuce roots using a hydroponic assay system. Here we report that after three days of interaction with lettuce roots, 193 and 131 genes were significantly up-regulated and down-regulated at least 1.5 fold, respectively. Forty-five out of the 193 up-regulated genes (23%) were involved in protein synthesis and were highly induced. Genes involved in stress response, attachment and biofilm formation were up-regulated in E. coli when they interacted with lettuce roots under conditions of hydroponic growth. In particular crl, a gene regulating the cryptic csgA gene for curli production, was significantly up regulated. The crl, csgA and fliN mutants had a reduced capacity to attach to roots as determined by bacterial counts and by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Our microarray data showed that E. coli K12 increased the synthesis of proteins indicated that a dramatic change was induced in the physiology of the microorganism. This study indicates that E. coli K12 can efficiently colonize lettuce roots by using attachment and biofilm modulation genes and can readily adapt to the rhizosphere of lettuce plants. Further studies are needed to better characterize this interaction in pathogenic strains of this species. Escherichia coli MG1655 strains were grown in the lettuce rhizosphere for three days. Transcriptional profiling of E. coli was compared between cells grown with and without rhizosphere . Three biological replicates of each treatment were prepared, and six microarray slides were used.