ISME communicationsPub Date : 2024-02-27eCollection Date: 2024-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycae027
Ellen Oldenburg, Ovidiu Popa, Matthias Wietz, Wilken-Jon von Appen, Sinhue Torres-Valdes, Christina Bienhold, Oliver Ebenhöh, Katja Metfies
{"title":"Sea-ice melt determines seasonal phytoplankton dynamics and delimits the habitat of temperate Atlantic taxa as the Arctic Ocean atlantifies.","authors":"Ellen Oldenburg, Ovidiu Popa, Matthias Wietz, Wilken-Jon von Appen, Sinhue Torres-Valdes, Christina Bienhold, Oliver Ebenhöh, Katja Metfies","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae027","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae027","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Arctic Ocean is one of the regions where anthropogenic environmental change is progressing most rapidly and drastically. The impact of rising temperatures and decreasing sea ice on Arctic marine microbial communities is yet not well understood. Microbes form the basis of food webs in the Arctic Ocean, providing energy for larger organisms. Previous studies have shown that Atlantic taxa associated with low light are robust to more polar conditions. We compared to which extent sea ice melt influences light-associated phytoplankton dynamics and biodiversity over two years at two mooring locations in the Fram Strait. One mooring is deployed in pure Atlantic water, and the second in the intermittently ice-covered Marginal Ice Zone. Time-series analysis of amplicon sequence variants abundance over a 2-year period, allowed us to identify communities of co-occurring taxa that exhibit similar patterns throughout the annual cycle. We then examined how alterations in environmental conditions affect the prevalence of species. During high abundance periods of diatoms, polar phytoplankton populations dominated, while temperate taxa were weakly represented. Furthermore, we found that polar pelagic and ice-associated taxa, such as <i>Fragilariopsis cylindrus</i> and <i>Melosira arctica</i>, were more common in Atlantic conditions, while temperate taxa, such as <i>Odontella aurita</i> and <i>Proboscia alata</i>, were less abundant under polar conditions. This suggests that sea ice melt may act as a barrier to the northward expansion of temperate phytoplankton, preventing their dominance in regions still strongly influenced by polar conditions. Our findings highlight the complex interactions between sea ice melt, phytoplankton dynamics, and biodiversity in the Arctic.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10955684/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140186475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ISME communicationsPub Date : 2024-02-24eCollection Date: 2024-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycae026
Kexin Ren, Yuanyuan Mo, Peng Xiao, Regin Rønn, Zijie Xu, Yuanyuan Xue, Huihuang Chen, Windell L Rivera, Christopher Rensing, Jun Yang
{"title":"Microeukaryotic plankton evolutionary constraints in a subtropical river explained by environment and bacteria along differing taxonomic resolutions.","authors":"Kexin Ren, Yuanyuan Mo, Peng Xiao, Regin Rønn, Zijie Xu, Yuanyuan Xue, Huihuang Chen, Windell L Rivera, Christopher Rensing, Jun Yang","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae026","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microeukaryotic plankton communities are keystone components for keeping aquatic primary productivity. Currently, variations in microeukaryotic plankton diversity have often been explained by local ecological factors but not by evolutionary constraints. We used amplicon sequencing of 100 water samples across five years to investigate the ecological preferences of the microeukaryotic plankton community in a subtropical riverine ecosystem. We found that microeukaryotic plankton diversity was less associated with bacterial abundance (16S rRNA gene copy number) than bacterial diversity. Further, environmental effects exhibited a larger influence on microeukaryotic plankton community composition than bacterial community composition, especially at fine taxonomic levels. The evolutionary constraints of microeukaryotic plankton community increased with decreasing taxonomic resolution (from 97% to 91% similarity levels), but not significant change from 85% to 70% similarity levels. However, compared with the bacterial community, the evolutionary constraints were shown to be more affected by environmental variables. This study illustrated possible controlling environmental and bacterial drivers of microeukaryotic diversity and community assembly in a subtropical river, thereby indirectly reflecting on the quality status of the water environment by providing new clues on the microeukaryotic community assembly.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10980835/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140337900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. S. Finks, Pranav Moudgalya, C. Weihe, J. Martiny
{"title":"The contribution of plasmids to trait diversity in a soil bacterium","authors":"S. S. Finks, Pranav Moudgalya, C. Weihe, J. Martiny","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycae025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Plasmids are so closely associated with pathogens and antibiotic resistance that their potential for conferring other traits is often overlooked. Few studies consider how the full suite of traits encoded by plasmids is related to a host’s environmental adaptation, particularly for gram-positive bacteria. To investigate the role that plasmid traits might play in microbial communities from natural ecosystems, we identified plasmids carried by isolates of Curtobacterium (phylum Actinomycetota) from a variety of soil environments. We found that plasmids were common, but not ubiquitous, in the genus and varied greatly in their size and genetic diversity. There was little evidence of phylogenetic conservation among Curtobacterium plasmids even for closely-related bacterial strains within the same ecotype, indicating that horizontal transmission of plasmids is common. The plasmids carried a wide diversity of traits that were not a random subset of the host chromosome. Further, the composition of these plasmid traits was associated with the environmental context of the host bacterium. Together, the results indicate that plasmids contribute substantially to the microdiversity of a soil bacterium and that this diversity may play a role in niche differentiation and a bacterium’s adaptation to its local environment.","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139964195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shengjie Li, Damon Mosier, A. Kouris, P. Humez, Bernhard Mayer, Marc Strous, M. Diao
{"title":"High diversity, abundance and expression of hydrogenases in groundwater","authors":"Shengjie Li, Damon Mosier, A. Kouris, P. Humez, Bernhard Mayer, Marc Strous, M. Diao","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycae023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Hydrogen may be the most important electron donor available in the subsurface. Here we analyze the diversity, abundance and expression of hydrogenases in 5 proteomes, 25 metagenomes and 265 amplicon datasets of groundwaters with diverse geochemistry. A total of 1545 new [NiFe]-hydrogenase gene sequences were recovered, which considerably increased the number of sequences (1999) in a widely used database. [NiFe]-hydrogenases were highly abundant, as abundant as the DNA-directed RNA polymerase. The abundance of hydrogenase genes increased with depth from 0 to 129 m. Hydrogenases were present in 481 out of 1245 metagenome-assembled-genomes. The relative abundance of microbes with hydrogenases accounted for ~50% of the entire community. Hydrogenases were actively expressed, making up as much as 5.9% of methanogen proteomes. Most of the newly discovered diversity of hydrogenases was in “Group 3b”, which has been associated with sulfur metabolism. “Group 3d”, facilitating the interconversion of electrons between hydrogen and NAD, was the most abundant and mainly observed in methanotrophs and chemoautotrophs. “Group 3a”, associated with methanogenesis, was the most abundant in proteomes. Two newly discovered groups of [NiFe]-hydrogenases, observed in Methanobacteriaceae and Anaerolineaceae, further expanded diversity. Our results highlight the vast diversity, abundance and expression of hydrogenases in groundwaters, suggesting a high potential for hydrogen oxidation in subsurface habitats.","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139784225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ISME communicationsPub Date : 2024-02-12eCollection Date: 2024-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycae024
Melody Cabrera Ospino, Katja Engel, Santiago Ruiz-Navas, W Jeffrey Binns, Andrew C Doxey, Josh D Neufeld
{"title":"Evaluation of multiple displacement amplification for metagenomic analysis of low biomass samples.","authors":"Melody Cabrera Ospino, Katja Engel, Santiago Ruiz-Navas, W Jeffrey Binns, Andrew C Doxey, Josh D Neufeld","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae024","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Combining multiple displacement amplification (MDA) with metagenomics enables the analysis of samples with extremely low DNA concentrations, making them suitable for high-throughput sequencing. Although amplification bias and nonspecific amplification have been reported from MDA-amplified samples, the impact of MDA on metagenomic datasets is not well understood. We compared three MDA methods (i.e. bulk MDA, emulsion MDA, and primase MDA) for metagenomic analysis of two DNA template concentrations (approx. 1 and 100 pg) derived from a microbial community standard \"mock community\" and two low biomass environmental samples (i.e. borehole fluid and groundwater). We assessed the impact of MDA on metagenome-based community composition, assembly quality, functional profiles, and binning. We found amplification bias against high GC content genomes but relatively low nonspecific amplification such as chimeras, artifacts, or contamination for all MDA methods. We observed MDA-associated representational bias for microbial community profiles, especially for low-input DNA and with the primase MDA method. Nevertheless, similar taxa were represented in MDA-amplified libraries to those of unamplified samples. The MDA libraries were highly fragmented, but similar functional profiles to the unamplified libraries were obtained for bulk MDA and emulsion MDA at higher DNA input and across these MDA libraries for the groundwater sample. Medium to low-quality bins were possible for the high input bulk MDA metagenomes for the most simple microbial communities, borehole fluid, and mock community. Although MDA-based amplification should be avoided, it can still reveal meaningful taxonomic and functional information from samples with extremely low DNA concentration where direct metagenomics is otherwise impossible.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10945365/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140159746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shengjie Li, Damon Mosier, A. Kouris, P. Humez, Bernhard Mayer, Marc Strous, M. Diao
{"title":"High diversity, abundance and expression of hydrogenases in groundwater","authors":"Shengjie Li, Damon Mosier, A. Kouris, P. Humez, Bernhard Mayer, Marc Strous, M. Diao","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycae023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Hydrogen may be the most important electron donor available in the subsurface. Here we analyze the diversity, abundance and expression of hydrogenases in 5 proteomes, 25 metagenomes and 265 amplicon datasets of groundwaters with diverse geochemistry. A total of 1545 new [NiFe]-hydrogenase gene sequences were recovered, which considerably increased the number of sequences (1999) in a widely used database. [NiFe]-hydrogenases were highly abundant, as abundant as the DNA-directed RNA polymerase. The abundance of hydrogenase genes increased with depth from 0 to 129 m. Hydrogenases were present in 481 out of 1245 metagenome-assembled-genomes. The relative abundance of microbes with hydrogenases accounted for ~50% of the entire community. Hydrogenases were actively expressed, making up as much as 5.9% of methanogen proteomes. Most of the newly discovered diversity of hydrogenases was in “Group 3b”, which has been associated with sulfur metabolism. “Group 3d”, facilitating the interconversion of electrons between hydrogen and NAD, was the most abundant and mainly observed in methanotrophs and chemoautotrophs. “Group 3a”, associated with methanogenesis, was the most abundant in proteomes. Two newly discovered groups of [NiFe]-hydrogenases, observed in Methanobacteriaceae and Anaerolineaceae, further expanded diversity. Our results highlight the vast diversity, abundance and expression of hydrogenases in groundwaters, suggesting a high potential for hydrogen oxidation in subsurface habitats.","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139844392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lei Qin, Wei Tian, Chris Freeman, Zhongjun Jia, Xiaolei Yin, Chuanyu Gao, Yuanchun Zou, Ming Jiang
{"title":"Changes in bacterial communities during rice cultivation remove phenolic constraints on peatland carbon preservation","authors":"Lei Qin, Wei Tian, Chris Freeman, Zhongjun Jia, Xiaolei Yin, Chuanyu Gao, Yuanchun Zou, Ming Jiang","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycae022","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Northern peatlands contain approximately 30% of terrestrial carbon (C) stores, but in recent decades, 14% to 20% of the stored C has been lost because of conversion of the peatland to cropland. Microorganisms are widely acknowledged as primary decomposers, but the keystone taxa within the bacterial community regulating C loss from cultivated peatlands remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the bacterial taxa driving peat C mineralization during rice cultivation. Cultivation significantly decreased concentrations of soil organic C, dissolved organic C, carbohydrates, and phenolics but increased C mineralization rate (CMR). Consistent with the classic theory that phenolic inhibition creates a “latch” that reduces peat C decomposition, phenolics were highly negatively correlated with CMR in cultivated peatlands, indicating that elimination of inhibitory phenolics can accelerate soil C mineralization. Bacterial communities were significantly different following peatland cultivation, and co-occurrence diagnosis analysis revealed substantial changes in network clusters of closely connected nodes (modules) and bacterial keystone taxa. Specifically, in cultivated peatlands, bacterial modules were significantly negatively correlated with phenolics, carbohydrates and dissolved organic C. While keystone taxa Xanthomonadales, Arthrobacter, and Bacteroidetes_vadinHA17 can regulate bacterial modules and promote carbon mineralization. Those observations indicated that changes in bacterial modules can promote phenolic decomposition and eliminate phenolic inhibition of labile C decomposition, thus accelerating soil organic C loss during rice cultivation. Overall, the study provides deeper insights into microbe-driven peat C loss during rice cultivation and highlights the crucial role of keystone bacterial taxa in the removal of phenolic constraints on peat C preservation.","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139798721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lei Qin, Wei Tian, Chris Freeman, Zhongjun Jia, Xiaolei Yin, Chuanyu Gao, Yuanchun Zou, Ming Jiang
{"title":"Changes in bacterial communities during rice cultivation remove phenolic constraints on peatland carbon preservation","authors":"Lei Qin, Wei Tian, Chris Freeman, Zhongjun Jia, Xiaolei Yin, Chuanyu Gao, Yuanchun Zou, Ming Jiang","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycae022","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Northern peatlands contain approximately 30% of terrestrial carbon (C) stores, but in recent decades, 14% to 20% of the stored C has been lost because of conversion of the peatland to cropland. Microorganisms are widely acknowledged as primary decomposers, but the keystone taxa within the bacterial community regulating C loss from cultivated peatlands remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the bacterial taxa driving peat C mineralization during rice cultivation. Cultivation significantly decreased concentrations of soil organic C, dissolved organic C, carbohydrates, and phenolics but increased C mineralization rate (CMR). Consistent with the classic theory that phenolic inhibition creates a “latch” that reduces peat C decomposition, phenolics were highly negatively correlated with CMR in cultivated peatlands, indicating that elimination of inhibitory phenolics can accelerate soil C mineralization. Bacterial communities were significantly different following peatland cultivation, and co-occurrence diagnosis analysis revealed substantial changes in network clusters of closely connected nodes (modules) and bacterial keystone taxa. Specifically, in cultivated peatlands, bacterial modules were significantly negatively correlated with phenolics, carbohydrates and dissolved organic C. While keystone taxa Xanthomonadales, Arthrobacter, and Bacteroidetes_vadinHA17 can regulate bacterial modules and promote carbon mineralization. Those observations indicated that changes in bacterial modules can promote phenolic decomposition and eliminate phenolic inhibition of labile C decomposition, thus accelerating soil organic C loss during rice cultivation. Overall, the study provides deeper insights into microbe-driven peat C loss during rice cultivation and highlights the crucial role of keystone bacterial taxa in the removal of phenolic constraints on peat C preservation.","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139858516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Felix Milke, H. Rodas-Gaitán, Georg Meissner, Vincent Masson, M. Oltmanns, Morten Möller, Yvette Wohlfahrt, Boris Kulig, Alberto Acedo, Miriam Athmann, J. Fritz
{"title":"Enrichment of putative plant growth promoting microorganisms in biodynamic compared to organic agriculture soils","authors":"Felix Milke, H. Rodas-Gaitán, Georg Meissner, Vincent Masson, M. Oltmanns, Morten Möller, Yvette Wohlfahrt, Boris Kulig, Alberto Acedo, Miriam Athmann, J. Fritz","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycae021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The potential of soils to maintain biological productivity, defined as soil health, is strongly influenced by human activity, such as agriculture. Therefore, soil management has always been a concern for sustainable agriculture and new methods that account for both soil health and crop yield must be found. Biofertilization using microbial inoculants emerges as a promising alternative to conventional interventions such as excessive mineral fertilization and herbicide use. Biodynamic preparations used as a central part of biodynamic agriculture have various effects on soil properties, such as microbial biomass and respiration. We conducted several biomarker experiments to infer the effect of biodynamic preparations on soil prokaryotic and fungal communities and compared results to organic management. Potential plant growth promoting Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) were quantified using a commercial database based on their taxonomic identity. We found significantly higher numbers of putative plant growth promoting ASVs in biodynamically compared to organically treated soils. Furthermore, prokaryotic ASVs enriched in biodynamic preparations were found in higher numbers in biodynamically treated soils, indicating successful colonization after treatment. Experiments were conducted at three locations in Germany and 21 locations in France covering different crops and soil types. Altogether, our results indicate that biodynamic preparations can act as biofertilizers that promote soil health by increasing the abundance of plant growth promoting microorganisms.","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139806138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Felix Milke, H. Rodas-Gaitán, Georg Meissner, Vincent Masson, M. Oltmanns, Morten Möller, Yvette Wohlfahrt, Boris Kulig, Alberto Acedo, Miriam Athmann, J. Fritz
{"title":"Enrichment of putative plant growth promoting microorganisms in biodynamic compared to organic agriculture soils","authors":"Felix Milke, H. Rodas-Gaitán, Georg Meissner, Vincent Masson, M. Oltmanns, Morten Möller, Yvette Wohlfahrt, Boris Kulig, Alberto Acedo, Miriam Athmann, J. Fritz","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycae021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycae021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The potential of soils to maintain biological productivity, defined as soil health, is strongly influenced by human activity, such as agriculture. Therefore, soil management has always been a concern for sustainable agriculture and new methods that account for both soil health and crop yield must be found. Biofertilization using microbial inoculants emerges as a promising alternative to conventional interventions such as excessive mineral fertilization and herbicide use. Biodynamic preparations used as a central part of biodynamic agriculture have various effects on soil properties, such as microbial biomass and respiration. We conducted several biomarker experiments to infer the effect of biodynamic preparations on soil prokaryotic and fungal communities and compared results to organic management. Potential plant growth promoting Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) were quantified using a commercial database based on their taxonomic identity. We found significantly higher numbers of putative plant growth promoting ASVs in biodynamically compared to organically treated soils. Furthermore, prokaryotic ASVs enriched in biodynamic preparations were found in higher numbers in biodynamically treated soils, indicating successful colonization after treatment. Experiments were conducted at three locations in Germany and 21 locations in France covering different crops and soil types. Altogether, our results indicate that biodynamic preparations can act as biofertilizers that promote soil health by increasing the abundance of plant growth promoting microorganisms.","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139866049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}