Showing papers by "Werner Liesack published in 2021"
TL;DR: In this paper, comparative metagenomics and genome binning were applied to investigate microbial functional profiles at the soil aggregate scale under different organic material amendments in a long-term field experiment.
34 citations
TL;DR: Pat-vermiculite enhanced microbiota-driven soil fertility and crop productivity, thereby providing new insights into plant-soil-microbiota interactions that can be harnessed for smart farming.
Abstract: Harnessing soil microbiomes is a major demand for development of sustainable and productive agriculture. Here we aimed to assess the impact of two different types of organic material amendments in combination with chemical fertilizer on the plant-soil microbiota in maize farming and its link to soil fertility and crop productivity. Soils and roots were collected from a long-term wheat-maize rotation system involving three experimental treatments: chemical fertilizer (CF); chemical fertilizer plus seasonal application of manure (OM); and chemical fertilizer plus one-time application of peat and vermiculite (PV). Crop residues were returned in all three treatments each season. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene and fungal ITS sequencing were conducted to elucidate the treatment-specific response of the microbiota in bulk soil, rhizosphere soil, and root compartment. Relative to CF and OM treatments, PV amendment led to significant increases in soil organic carbon (SOC) content, aboveground plant biomass, and grain yield over the five-year field study. The PV-induced changes in microbial composition involved the greatest treatment-specific “effect size” on indicator ASVs (amplicon sequence variants) in bulk and rhizosphere soils. The number of interactions was more than doubled in the PV co-occurrence network relative to those in the CF and OM co-occurrence networks. Potential beneficial microbes, such as Glomeromycota (arbuscular mycorrhiza), Basidiomycota, and various members of the Actinobacteria and Burkholderiales, were most enriched in the root compartment of the PV treatment. Peat-vermiculite enhanced microbiota-driven soil fertility and crop productivity, thereby providing new insights into plant-soil-microbiota interactions that can be harnessed for smart farming.
20 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a link between microbial life history strategies and soil organic carbon storage in agroecosystems is presumed, but largely unexplored at the gene level, and the authors aimed to elucidate whether and how differential organic material amendments (manure versus peat-vermiculite) affect, relative to sole chemical fertilizer application, the link between microorganisms' life history strategy and soil carbon storage, in a wheat-maize rotation field experiment.
12 citations
TL;DR: This article used a combination of quantitative PCR-based assays and metatranscriptomics to assess the impact of seasonality on the rhizospheric microbiota in temperate European grassland.
6 citations
TL;DR: Functional annotation revealed that the Ignavibacteria in Italian paddy soil are facultative anaerobes, represent a novel lineage in the Ignvibacteriae phylum, and have the ability for aerobic-hybrid phenylacetate degradation.
Abstract: The Ignavibacteria are ubiquitously abundant in paddy soils, but their functional role is poorly known. Here, we applied a targeted meta-genomic/transcriptomic approach to elucidate genetic potential and functional activity of the Ignavibacteria in straw-amended paddy soils from Italy. Eight high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) were recovered, being the largest ones (∅ 4.8 Mbp) among all known Ignavibacteria genomes (∅ 3.7 Mbp). Functional annotation revealed that the Ignavibacteria in Italian paddy soil are facultative anaerobes, represent a novel lineage in the Ignavibacteriae phylum, and have the ability for aerobic-hybrid phenylacetate degradation. Their putative functional roles under anoxic and micro-oxic conditions were assessed by mapping environmental mRNA onto the MAGs. Transcript analysis showed that primary fermentation of sugars to acetate and hydrogen is a major energy-yielding pathway under anoxic conditions. Although the phenylacetate degradation pathway is widely distributed among taxonomically diverse paddy soil bacteria, Ignavibacteria almost exclusively expressed this pathway under micro-oxic conditions. In particular, the transcript level of the paaABCDE gene cluster increased significantly. It encodes a monooxygenase, which is the key enzyme of phenylacetate degradation. This was linked to a significant decrease in transcripts encoding fermentation pathways and oxygen-sensitive hydrogenases, but increase in transcripts encoding TCA cycle, respiratory chain, and proteins involved in oxygen stress response (SOD1, AhpC, Bfr). More than half of the carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) expressed under anoxic and micro-oxic conditions possessed signal peptides, thereby indicating that Ignavibacteria contribute to the decomposition of complex polymers, such as cellulose, hemicellulose, and chitin. In summary, the Ignavibacteria in rice field soil are metabolically versatile and particularly adapted to the varying oxygen conditions in this ecosystem.
6 citations