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Title: Warming Alters Expressions of Microbial Functional Genes Important to Ecosystem Functioning

Journal Article · · Frontiers in Microbiology
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [5];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [6]
  1. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). State Key Joint Lab. of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment; Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Inst. for Environmental Genomics; Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Dept. of Microbiology and Plant Biology
  2. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Inst. for Environmental Genomics; Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Dept. of Microbiology and Plant Biology; Central South Univ., Changsha (China). School of Mineral Processing and Bioengineering
  3. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Inst. for Environmental Genomics; Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Dept. of Microbiology and Plant Biology
  4. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Dept. of Microbiology and Plant Biology
  5. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Inst. for Environmental Genomics; Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Dept. of Microbiology and Plant Biology; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Key Lab. of Environmental Biotechnology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences
  6. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). State Key Joint Lab. of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment; Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Inst. for Environmental Genomics; Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Dept. of Microbiology and Plant Biology; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth Science Division
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Soil microbial communities play critical roles in ecosystem functioning and are likely altered by climate warming. However, so far, little is known about effects of warming on microbial functional gene expressions. Here, we applied functional gene array (GeoChip 3.0) to analyze cDNA reversely transcribed from total RNA to assess expressed functional genes in active soil microbial communities after nine years of experimental warming in a tallgrass prairie. Our results showed that warming significantly altered the community wide gene expressions. Specifically, expressed genes for degrading more recalcitrant carbon were stimulated by warming, likely linked to the plant community shift toward more C 4 species under warming and to decrease the long-term soil carbon stability. In addition, warming changed expressed genes in labile C degradation and N cycling in different directions (increase and decrease), possibly reflecting the dynamics of labile C and available N pools during sampling. However, the average abundances of expressed genes in phosphorus and sulfur cycling were all increased by warming, implying a stable trend of accelerated P and S processes which might be a mechanism to sustain higher plant growth. Furthermore, the expressed gene composition was closely related to both dynamic (e.g., soil moisture) and stable environmental attributes (e.g., C 4 leaf C or N content), indicating that RNA analyses could also capture certain stable trends in the long-term treatment. Overall, this study revealed the importance of elucidating functional gene expressions of soil microbial community in enhancing our understanding of ecosystem responses to warming.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; SC0004601
OSTI ID:
1378767
Journal Information:
Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol. 7, Issue MAY; ISSN 1664-302X
Publisher:
Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 31 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (2)

Functional diversity and redundancy across fish gut, sediment and water bacterial communities journal July 2017
Elevated CO2 and Warming Altered Grassland Microbial Communities in Soil Top-Layers journal August 2018

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Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
RNA
functional gene expression
global climate change
warming
GeoChip