Title: Year-Round Shotgun Metagenomes Reveal Stable Microbial Communities in Agricultural Soils and Novel Ammonia Oxidizers Responding to Fertilization

Abstract

The dynamics of individual microbial populations and their gene functions in agricultural soils, especially after major activities such as nitrogen (N) fertilization, remain elusive but are important for a better understanding of nutrient cycling. In this paper, we analyzed 20 short-read metagenomes collected at four time points during 1 year from two depths (0 to 5 and 20 to 30 cm) in two Midwestern agricultural sites representing contrasting soil textures (sandy versus silty loam) with similar cropping histories. Although the microbial community taxonomic and functional compositions differed between the two locations and depths, they were more stable within a depth/site throughout the year than communities in natural aquatic ecosystems. For example, among the 69 population genomes assembled from the metagenomes, 75% showed a less than 2-fold change in abundance between any two sampling points. Interestingly, six deep-branching Thaumarchaeota and three complete ammonia oxidizer (comammox) Nitrospira populations increased up to 5-fold in abundance upon the addition of N fertilizer. These results indicated that indigenous archaeal ammonia oxidizers may respond faster (are more copiotrophic) to N fertilization than previously thought. None of 29 recovered putative denitrifier genomes encoded the complete denitrification pathway, suggesting that denitrification is carried out by a collection ofmore » different populations. Altogether, our study identified novel microbial populations and genes responding to seasonal and human-induced perturbations in agricultural soils that should facilitate future monitoring efforts and N-related studies. Even though the impact of agricultural management on the microbial community structure has been recognized, an understanding of the dynamics of individual microbial populations and what functions each population carries are limited. Yet, this information is important for a better understanding of nutrient cycling, with potentially important implications for preserving nitrogen in soils and sustainability. Finally, here, we show that reconstructed metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) are relatively stable in their abundance and functional gene content year round, and seasonal nitrogen fertilization has selected for novel Thaumarchaeota and comammox Nitrospira nitrifiers that are potentially less oligotrophic than their marine counterparts previously studied.« less

Authors:

Orellana, Luis H. ^[1]; Chee-Sanford, Joanne C. ^[2]; Sanford, Robert A. ^[3]; Löffler, Frank E.  ^[4];

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Konstantinidis, Konstantinos T. ^[1]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
2. USDA Agricultural Research Service, Urbana, IL (United States)
3. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)
4. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Biosciences Division

Publication Date:

2017-11-03

Research Org.:

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Science Foundation (NSF)

OSTI Identifier:

1468132

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC05-00OR22725; SC0006662; 1356288

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 84; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0099-2240

Publisher:

American Society for Microbiology

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; metagenomics; nitrifiers; soil microbiology; seasonal dynamics