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Title: Cellulolytic potential under environmental changes in microbial communities from grassland litter

Journal Article · · Frontiers in Microbiology
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [2]
  1. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Earth System Science; California State Univ. (CalState), Long Beach, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Earth System Science; Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  3. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth Sciences Division; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Environmental Science

We report that in many ecosystems, global changes are likely to profoundly affect microorganisms. In Southern California, changes in precipitation and nitrogen deposition may influence the composition and functional potential of microbial communities and their resulting ability to degrade plant material. To test whether such environmental changes impact the distribution of functional groups involved in leaf litter degradation, we determined how the genomic diversity of microbial communities in a semi-arid grassland ecosystem changed under reduced precipitation or increased N deposition. We monitored communities seasonally over a period of 2 years to place environmental change responses into the context of natural variation. Fungal and bacterial communities displayed strong seasonal patterns, Fungi being mostly detected during the dry season whereas Bacteria were common during wet periods. Most putative cellulose degraders were associated with 33 bacterial genera and predicted to constitute 18% of the microbial community. Precipitation reduction reduced bacterial abundance and cellulolytic potential whereas nitrogen addition did not affect the cellulolytic potential of the microbial community. Finally, we detected a strong correlation between the frequencies of genera of putative cellulose degraders and cellulase genes. Thus, microbial taxonomic composition was predictive of cellulolytic potential. This work provides a framework for how environmental changes affect microorganisms responsible for plant litter deconstruction.

Research Organization:
University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
PS02-09ER09-25; OCE-1046297
OSTI ID:
1254001
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1256963
Journal Information:
Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol. 5; ISSN 1664-302X
Publisher:
Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 53 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (17)

Function, distribution, and annotation of characterized cellulases, xylanases, and chitinases from CAZy journal January 2018
Microbial response to simulated global change is phylogenetically conserved and linked with functional potential journal June 2015
A genomic perspective on stoichiometric regulation of soil carbon cycling journal July 2017
Defining trait-based microbial strategies with consequences for soil carbon cycling under climate change journal September 2019
Above and belowground community strategies respond to different global change drivers journal February 2019
Cellulose and hemicellulose decomposition by forest soil bacteria proceeds by the action of structurally variable enzymatic systems journal April 2016
Decomposition responses to climate depend on microbial community composition journal November 2018
Microbiota Dynamics Associated with Environmental Conditions and Potential Roles of Cellulolytic Communities in Traditional Chinese Cereal Starter Solid-State Fermentation journal May 2015
Decoding the complete arsenal for cellulose and hemicellulose deconstruction in the highly efficient cellulose decomposer Paenibacillus O199 journal May 2016
Natural diversity of cellulases, xylanases, and chitinases in bacteria journal June 2016
Targeted metatranscriptomics of compost-derived consortia reveals a GH11 exerting an unusual exo-1,4-β-xylanase activity journal November 2017
Links between plant and fungal diversity in habitat fragments of coastal shrubland journal September 2017
Evidence for Ecological Flexibility in the Cosmopolitan Genus Curtobacterium journal November 2016
Above and belowground community strategies respond to different global change drivers text January 2019
Microbial legacies alter decomposition in response to simulated global change journal October 2016
Glycoside Hydrolases across Environmental Microbial Communities journal December 2016
Editorial: Microbial Responses to Environmental Changes journal December 2015