ISME communicationsPub Date : 2026-09-17eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag265
Thomas E P de Bruijn, Hilje M Doekes, Anne Kupczok
{"title":"Temperate versus virulent phage lifestyle impacts microdiversity in soil environments.","authors":"Thomas E P de Bruijn, Hilje M Doekes, Anne Kupczok","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycag265","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bacteriophages are not only the most ubiquitous biological entity on earth, but they also display remarkable genetic diversity across and within populations. While macrodiversity has been extensively studied, the drivers of microdiversity (intra-species genetic diversity) remain poorly understood, particularly in relation to phage lifestyle. The distinguishing ability of temperate phages to integrate themselves into the host genome has an unknown influence on the microdiversity present. This difference in microdiversity could impact the adaptability of phages to (a)biotic factors. To identify a possible association between microdiversity and lifestyle, we analysed 12 existing viromics datasets focusing on soil bacteriophages, including 43 171 viral genomes in total. We found that phages predicted to be temperate consistently exhibit higher microdiversity than their virulent counterparts in 8 of 12 datasets. Of the remaining four datasets, one showed the opposite trend and three datasets did not show a significant trend at all. The detected pattern holds across multiple quality thresholds and lifestyle prediction methods. These findings suggest that lifestyle has a significant impact on genetic variation within phage populations, with potential implications for phage-host coevolution and environmental adaptability.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag265"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13653612/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149169180","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 : 2026-09-17eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag267
Yu Fukasawa, Aoi Chiba
{"title":"Decoupling species richness and interaction frequency reveals how fungal interactions regulate wood decomposition.","authors":"Yu Fukasawa, Aoi Chiba","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycag267","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Wood decay fungi play a central role in forest carbon cycling, yet the mechanisms linking fungal biodiversity to decomposition remain unclear because species richness and interspecific interactions are rarely separated. Here, we experimentally disentangled these effects using a microcosm with four common wood-decay fungi. By manipulating the spatial arrangements of pre-colonized wood blocks, fungal species richness and the frequency of interspecific interactions were independently varied. Wood mass loss was quantified, and acid-unhydrolyzable residue (AUR, Klason lignin) and carbohydrate analyses were conducted to examine the changes in decay strategies and the potential accumulation of recalcitrant fungal products. Both fungal species richness and interspecific interactions enhanced wood decomposition, but their effects depended on species identity and combinations. Selection effects were observed when competitively dominant species replaced weaker competitors. Several species combinations showed decomposition rates exceeding those of pure cultures, indicating complementarity and facilitation by interspecific interactions. Generalized linear mixed models revealed that interaction frequency and species richness independently influenced decay rates in a species-specific manner. Chemical analyses revealed that interspecific interactions altered the relative loss of AUR and carbohydrates, indicating shifts in the enzymatic allocation and/or production of acid-insoluble fungal metabolites during competition. Our results indicate that competitive interactions among fungal species often accelerate decomposition to offset energetic costs. However, deadlock interactions among basidiomycetes may promote the accumulation of recalcitrant fungal compounds, potentially slowing decomposition over longer timescales. We propose the \"accumulated inhibitor hypothesis\" to reconcile contrasting fungal diversity-decomposition relationships and highlight the importance of interaction frequency in fungal biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag267"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13625648/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149119494","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 : 2026-09-16eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag264
Qiuju Liu, Han Su, Sai Gong, Ying Jin, Yingzheng Fan, Mengxiong Wu, Jianhua Guo, Xinkun Ren, Jinfeng Wang
{"title":"Quorum-sensing microbial dark matter enables core functions in wastewater microbiomes.","authors":"Qiuju Liu, Han Su, Sai Gong, Ying Jin, Yingzheng Fan, Mengxiong Wu, Jianhua Guo, Xinkun Ren, Jinfeng Wang","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag264","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag264","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Quorum-sensing bacteria (QSB) play a crucial role in coordinating microbial activities in activated sludge. However, our knowledge is primarily based on cultivated or taxonomically classified species, neglecting microbial dark matter (MDM), which comprises lineages lacking reference genomes and is prevalent in wastewater communities. Herein, 3569 high- and medium-quality metagenome-assembled genomes were obtained from 69 full-scale wastewater treatment plants. A total of 1289 MDM lineages were identified to possess quorum sensing (QS) capabilities, designated as MDM-QSB. Among them, 127 novel genera were identified. These organisms possess larger genomes enriched in genes for energy metabolism and environmental information processing, allowing a broader ecological niche compared to non-QS MDM (<i>P</i> < .001). They occupy central positions in co-occurrence networks and are predicted as dominant keystones by a deep learning model. Their robust metabolic potential and network keystone position enable coordinated community-level metabolic responses, as evidenced by stronger carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur element cycling functions and higher associations with chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen, and ammonium nitrogen removal (<i>P</i> < .05). Furthermore, genome-scale metabolic modeling reveals they engage in extensive cross-feeding with nitrifiers, denitrifiers, and polyphosphate-accumulating organisms, supplying metabolites such as protoheme and serine alongside QS signals. Together, these findings identify MDM-QSB as previously overlooked multifunctional hubs of activated sludge microbiomes. Given their crucial roles in community stability and process performance, incorporating these previously overlooked populations into monitoring and control frameworks is expected to improve the resilience and predictability of biological wastewater treatment processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag264"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641062/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149119502","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 : 2026-09-12eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag260
Luana Bresciani, Gordon F Custer, Francisco Dini-Andreote
{"title":"Microbial community coalescence restructures co-occurrence architecture and generates regime-specific patterns of network complexity and stability.","authors":"Luana Bresciani, Gordon F Custer, Francisco Dini-Andreote","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag260","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag260","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microbial community coalescence (MCC), the mixing of distinct microbiomes, is increasingly recognized as an important process in natural and managed microbial systems. However, how MCC reorganizes species association architecture and whether this restructuring alters community stability remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated how MCC modifies microbial co-occurrence networks and whether resulting architectures deviate from expectations based on stochastic reshuffling or direct compositional mixing of donor communities. Using controlled soil microcosms, we manipulated pairwise coalescence scenarios across a gradient of biotic dilution and tracked community reassembly over 30 days. Empirical association networks were then compared to two reference frameworks: a stochastic balanced-averaging null model and a donor-preserving compositional mixing model. Across treatments, MCC produced extensive restructuring of species association architecture, with empirical networks exhibiting substantially higher node turnover and a predominance of novel correlations relative to both reference expectations. Higher-order network properties also frequently diverged from expected simulated outcomes, indicating that coalescence reshapes correlation architecture beyond stochastic or additive donor mixing. The consequences of this restructuring for network stability were strongly context-dependent. In one coalescence regime, reductions in biotic complexity led to coordinated declines in network complexity and robustness, accompanied by increased fragmentation and vulnerability, whereas other regimes remained insensitive to the biotic dilution gradient. Moreover, community diversity predicted network architecture only under specific coalescence contexts, revealing regime-specific relationships between community diversity, network complexity, and network stability. Together, these results demonstrate that MCC reorganizes microbial association networks in patterns consistent with context-dependent ecological processes that generate distinct complexity and stability patterns.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag260"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13615532/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149066176","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 : 2026-09-11eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag263
Xiao-Li Bing, Shuo Gao, Jia-Mei Li, Lei Chen, Huan Wang, Yu Liu, Huan-Huan Liu, Xiao-Yue Hong
{"title":"Genomic stability and differential expression of type V cif genes in <i>Wolbachia</i> with variable cytoplasmic incompatibility phenotypes in spider mites.","authors":"Xiao-Li Bing, Shuo Gao, Jia-Mei Li, Lei Chen, Huan Wang, Yu Liu, Huan-Huan Liu, Xiao-Yue Hong","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycag263","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The two-spotted spider mite, <i>Tetranychus urticae</i>, is a globally significant agricultural pest frequently infected by the endosymbiont <i>Wolbachia</i>. <i>Wolbachia</i> induces cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) with varying intensity across geographic populations. Despite the importance of CI, its molecular mechanisms in <i>T. urticae</i> remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that CI differences are driven by both <i>Wolbachia</i> (<i>w</i>Turt) strain variations and host nuclear background. The <i>w</i>Turt genome harbors two pairs of <i>cif</i> genes (<i>cifA1-B1</i> and <i>cifA2-B2</i>), both phylogenetically classified as Type V. Genomic analysis revealed no SNP differences in either pair of <i>cif</i> genes in <i>w</i>Turt infecting different geographic populations of spider mites. While <i>cifA1-B1</i> is barely expressed, <i>cifA2-B2</i> exhibits high expression levels that vary significantly across multiple <i>T. urticae</i> populations, with expression levels positively correlated with <i>w</i>Turt density. Yeast two-hybrid experiments revealed physical interactions between CifA2 and the PD-(D/E)XK nuclease domain of CifB2, suggesting that this pair may contribute to CI modulation. Codon optimization revealed that the CifB2 nuclease domain is toxic in yeast, but this toxicity was not rescued by CifA2. Transgenic Drosophila assays likewise failed to reproduce CI-related phenotypes. Altogether, our findings advance the understanding of <i>Wolbachia</i>-host reproductive manipulation and provide insights for symbiont-based biocontrol strategies for agricultural mite pests.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag263"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13657049/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149186646","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 : 2026-09-11eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag262
Christopher E Lawson, Joel P Howard, Thomas S Lankiewicz, James B Brown, Steven W Singer, Héctor García Martín, Michelle A O'Malley
{"title":"Carbohydrate-active enzyme architectures reflect distinct fungal and bacterial strategies for lignocellulose conversion to volatile fatty acids.","authors":"Christopher E Lawson, Joel P Howard, Thomas S Lankiewicz, James B Brown, Steven W Singer, Héctor García Martín, Michelle A O'Malley","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag262","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag262","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Anaerobic fermentation with microbial communities is an emerging platform for converting lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels and bioproducts. The process relies on diverse anaerobic microbes that interact to deconstruct and convert lignocellulosic biomass into a range of products, such as volatile fatty acids (VFAs), through arresting methanogenesis during fermentation. However, defining the distinct functional roles played by various fungi and bacteria during anaerobic biodegradation remains poorly understood. Here, we performed parallel enrichment experiments from cow feces, goat feces, and anaerobic digester sludge, selecting for fungal- or bacterial-dominated communities that convert sorghum biomass into VFAs. Subsequently, we reconstructed metabolic networks across these enrichments using recovered bacterial metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), fungal isolate genomes, and genome-centric metatranscriptomics. This enabled direct comparison of the carbohydrate-active enzymes and fermentation pathways expressed by bacterial and fungal communities during lignocellulose conversion to VFAs. Our findings implicate diverse bacteria affiliated with the Bacteroidales and Lachnospiraceae in the direct conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to propionate and butyrate, respectively, whereas <i>Neocallimastix</i>-dominated fungal enrichments converted lignocellulose to lactate, acetate, and formate. Analysis of carbohydrate-active enzymes revealed that bacterial and fungal communities primarily targeted the same dominant lignocellulosic substrates while employing distinct enzyme repertoires and multidomain carbohydrate-active enzyme architectures, highlighting complementary enzymatic strategies for accessing and deconstructing lignocellulosic biomass. We anticipate that these findings will help inform efforts to develop synthetic consortia with tailored functionality for low-cost conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and bio-based chemicals.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag262"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641081/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149119490","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 : 2026-09-10eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag259
Florian Walder, Kyle Hartman, Anna Edlinger, Chantal Herzog, Alain Y Valzano-Held, Sana Romdhane, Laurent Philippot, Samiran Banerjee, Marcel G A van der Heijden
{"title":"Compost application more strongly shapes soil fungal than bacterial communities across arable fields.","authors":"Florian Walder, Kyle Hartman, Anna Edlinger, Chantal Herzog, Alain Y Valzano-Held, Sana Romdhane, Laurent Philippot, Samiran Banerjee, Marcel G A van der Heijden","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycag259","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Organic amendments such as compost are widely promoted for enriching soil microbial communities and supporting key soil functions, yet their effects across diverse farming systems and pedoclimatic conditions remain poorly understood. Most evidence originates from controlled experiments that cannot account for the variability inherent in real agronomic settings. Here, using data from 56 commercially managed wheat fields under different fertilizer regimes (compost, solid digestate, or manure) across Switzerland, we show that compost application reshapes soil microbial communities under real farming conditions. Compost increased fungal diversity, shifted fungal community composition, and markedly enhanced fungal network complexity (+50%), exceeding effects of the overall management system (organic versus conventional). While compost effects were strongest for fungal communities, 13 bacterial and nine fungal taxa also increased in abundance following frequent compost application. We further identified a distinct microbial cluster enriched with compost-responsive taxa, including thermophilic taxa from both bacterial (Thermoactinomycetaceae) and fungal (<i>Thermomyces</i>) lineages characteristic of composting processes, suggesting establishment of compost-derived microbes in agricultural soils. In contrast, solid digestate from biogas plants had weaker and more variable effects on soil microbial communities. Structural equation modelling suggested that compost was associated with higher soil respiration mediated primarily through soil physicochemical properties and to a lesser extent microbial community traits. Together, the results provide evidence that compost application structures soil microbial communities across a wide range of pedoclimatic conditions and management backgrounds within Swiss agroecosystems, supporting its role as an effective practice for strengthening microbially mediated soil processes and promoting sustainable soil management.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag259"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13657048/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149186707","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}
{"title":"Manure substitution counteracts mineral nitrogen-driven erosion of the <i>phoD</i> guild and supports phosphorus mobilization in acidified paddy soil.","authors":"Jitao Huang, Bangxiao Zheng, Yuxuan Mo, Salimzoda Amonullo, Weiyi Lv, Xianyong Lin, Qing-Fang Bi","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag261","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag261","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Maintaining microbially mediated phosphorus mobilization under intensive nitrogen fertilization is difficult in acidified paddy soils. Using a decade-long field experiment in a rice-oilseed rape rotation, we compared an ordered manure-substitution series, in which manure input increased while mineral nitrogen input decreased, with a mineral nitrogen dose gradient. Increasing mineral nitrogen input was associated with lower diversity and absolute abundance of the <i>phoD</i>-harbouring bacterial guild and a marked shift in community composition. Across the manure-substitution series, soil pH increased from 5.94 to 6.62, potential alkaline phosphatase activity increased by up to 158%, and Olsen-extractable phosphorus increased by up to 182%. The diversity, composition, and absolute abundance of the <i>phoD</i> guild changed progressively across the same series. Distance-based redundancy analysis identified soil pH as the strongest measured marginal correlate of community composition, whereas variation partitioning indicated that the effects of pH, carbon, and phosphorus were largely shared. An exploratory structural equation model was consistent with conditional associations of both community composition and absolute gene abundance with alkaline phosphatase activity, which was, in turn, associated with Olsen-extractable phosphorus. The highest observed means for gene abundance, grain yield, and grain phosphorus removal occurred in the intermediate manure treatment, whereas treatment-level copper and zinc concentrations increased towards the highest-manure treatment. Together, these findings indicate that manure substitution can counteract mineral nitrogen-associated deterioration of the <i>phoD</i> guild and support microbial phosphorus mobilization, although the agronomic and metal responses require confirmation across sites and seasons.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag261"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13615535/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149066235","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 : 2026-09-07eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag251
Marie Raab, Jan Helge Behr, Sotirios Vasileiadis, Günter Neumann, Kornelia Smalla, Rita Grosch, Joerg Geistlinger, Wilfried Rozhon, Doreen Babin, Ioannis D Kampouris
{"title":"Positive effects of reduced tillage intensity on soil organic matter are linked to shifts of <i>K</i>-/<i>r</i>-strategists in soil bacterial community composition.","authors":"Marie Raab, Jan Helge Behr, Sotirios Vasileiadis, Günter Neumann, Kornelia Smalla, Rita Grosch, Joerg Geistlinger, Wilfried Rozhon, Doreen Babin, Ioannis D Kampouris","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag251","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycag251","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Compared to conventional ploughing, reduced tillage intensity (e.g. cultivator tillage) benefits soil organic matter (SOM) accumulation, which has been attributed to lower disruption of soil aggregates under reduced tillage intensity. While soil microorganisms have been known to contribute to SOM accumulation, the contribution of microbial processes to SOM content has been overlooked, with the underlying mechanisms remaining unclear. We here estimated how cultivator tillage shifts soil bacterial community composition toward slower-growing <i>K</i>-strategists, in contrast to faster-growing <i>r</i>-strategists, by analyzing previously generated data from a long-term field trial in loess chernozem soil. We annotated the 16S rRNA genes from the whole amplicon sequence variant dataset through sequence alignment and identified publicly available genomes phylogenetically related to them with at least 97% sequence identity. Next, we computationally inferred traits such as growth rate, genome size, and the number of carbohydrate catabolism-related genes. These traits were strongly associated with positive responders to cultivator or mouldboard-plough tillage in the bulk soil bacterial communities. Moreover, mouldboard-plough tillage showed a lower ratio of slower- to faster-growing bacterial taxa compared to cultivator tillage in the bulk soil. While this relationship was absent in rhizosphere bacterial communities, these communities showed an overall lower ratio of slower- to faster-growing bacterial taxa than the bulk soil bacterial communities. Moreover, this ratio was negatively correlated with SOM only under mouldboard-plough tillage in bulk soil bacterial communities. Overall, our results indicate that tillage intensity influences the relationship of bacterial <i>K-</i>/<i>r</i>-strategists with SOM.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag251"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13637816/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149119415","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}