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Archaeal abundance across a pH gradient in an arable soil and its relationship with bacterial and fungal growth rates.

Bengtson, Per LU ; Sterngren, Anna LU and Rousk, Johannes LU (2012) In Applied and Environmental Microbiology 78(16). p.5906-5911
Abstract
Soil pH is one of the most influential factors for the composition of bacterial and fungal communities, but the influence of soil pH on the distribution and composition of soil archaeal communities has yet to be systematically addressed. The primary aim of this study was to determine how total archaeal abundance (qPCR based estimates of 16S rRNA gene copy numbers) is related to soil pH across a pH gradient (pH 4.0-8.3). Secondarily, we wanted to assess how archaeal abundance related to bacterial and fungal growth rates across the same pH gradient. We identified two distinct and opposite effects of pH on the archaeal abundance. In the lowest pH range (pH 4.0-4.7) the abundance of archaea did not seem to respond to pH. Above this pH range... (More)
Soil pH is one of the most influential factors for the composition of bacterial and fungal communities, but the influence of soil pH on the distribution and composition of soil archaeal communities has yet to be systematically addressed. The primary aim of this study was to determine how total archaeal abundance (qPCR based estimates of 16S rRNA gene copy numbers) is related to soil pH across a pH gradient (pH 4.0-8.3). Secondarily, we wanted to assess how archaeal abundance related to bacterial and fungal growth rates across the same pH gradient. We identified two distinct and opposite effects of pH on the archaeal abundance. In the lowest pH range (pH 4.0-4.7) the abundance of archaea did not seem to respond to pH. Above this pH range there was a sharp, almost 4-fold, decrease in archaeal abundance, reaching a minimum at pH 5.1-5.2. The low archaeal abundance of archaeal 16S rRNA gene copies at this pH then sharply increased almost 150-fold with pH, resulting in an increase in the ratio between archaeal and bacterial copy numbers from a minimum of 0.002 to more than 0.07 at pH 8. The non-uniform archaeal response to pH could reflect variation in the archaeal community composition along the gradient, with some archaea adapted to acidic conditions, and others to neutral to slightly alkaline conditions. This suggestion is reinforced by observations of contrasting outcomes of the (competitive) interactions between archaea, bacteria and fungi towards the lower and higher ends of the examined pH gradient. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Applied and Environmental Microbiology
volume
78
issue
16
pages
5906 - 5911
publisher
American Society for Microbiology
external identifiers
  • wos:000307139500053
  • pmid:22706045
  • scopus:84866156946
  • pmid:22706045
ISSN
0099-2240
DOI
10.1128/AEM.01476-12
project
The role of archaea in soil carbon and nitrogen turnover
Microbial carbon-use efficiency
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
191c8552-638e-4671-8a04-320703640bbf (old id 2859307)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:14:27
date last changed
2022-04-04 03:47:47
@article{191c8552-638e-4671-8a04-320703640bbf,
  abstract     = {{Soil pH is one of the most influential factors for the composition of bacterial and fungal communities, but the influence of soil pH on the distribution and composition of soil archaeal communities has yet to be systematically addressed. The primary aim of this study was to determine how total archaeal abundance (qPCR based estimates of 16S rRNA gene copy numbers) is related to soil pH across a pH gradient (pH 4.0-8.3). Secondarily, we wanted to assess how archaeal abundance related to bacterial and fungal growth rates across the same pH gradient. We identified two distinct and opposite effects of pH on the archaeal abundance. In the lowest pH range (pH 4.0-4.7) the abundance of archaea did not seem to respond to pH. Above this pH range there was a sharp, almost 4-fold, decrease in archaeal abundance, reaching a minimum at pH 5.1-5.2. The low archaeal abundance of archaeal 16S rRNA gene copies at this pH then sharply increased almost 150-fold with pH, resulting in an increase in the ratio between archaeal and bacterial copy numbers from a minimum of 0.002 to more than 0.07 at pH 8. The non-uniform archaeal response to pH could reflect variation in the archaeal community composition along the gradient, with some archaea adapted to acidic conditions, and others to neutral to slightly alkaline conditions. This suggestion is reinforced by observations of contrasting outcomes of the (competitive) interactions between archaea, bacteria and fungi towards the lower and higher ends of the examined pH gradient.}},
  author       = {{Bengtson, Per and Sterngren, Anna and Rousk, Johannes}},
  issn         = {{0099-2240}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{16}},
  pages        = {{5906--5911}},
  publisher    = {{American Society for Microbiology}},
  series       = {{Applied and Environmental Microbiology}},
  title        = {{Archaeal abundance across a pH gradient in an arable soil and its relationship with bacterial and fungal growth rates.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01476-12}},
  doi          = {{10.1128/AEM.01476-12}},
  volume       = {{78}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}