There are studies on the assessment of non-edible transgenic plants on soil microbial communities. In this research we evaluated the effect of virus-resistant trigonal cactus on soil microbial communities of the rhizosphere. Soil samples are collected and compared in genetically modified (GM) and non-GM trigonal cactus cultivation fields during vegetative growth period and post-harvest period. Biolog EcoplateTM was used to evaluate the functional diversity of soil microbial communities. There were no significant differences between the GM and non-GM soil samples collected during the vegetative growth period. However, we observed temporary difference in carbon substrate utilization. Principal component analysis showed that soil microbiota was influenced not by presence of GM or non-GM trigonal cacti, but rather by the cultivation period. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis fingerprinting revealed that virus-resistant trigonal cactus cultivation had insignificant effect on soil microbial communities including dominant rhizosphere bacteria, actinomycetes, and fungi. We found no clear evidence of GM trigonal cactus cultivation affecting the functional diversity of soil microbial communities.

Biolog ECO plates (31 different carbon sources, Biolog Inc., Hayward, USA) were used to discriminate between rhizosphere soil samples from 4- and 9-year alfalfa stands each with three replication. The growth curves for different groups of carbon sources were nearly sigmoidal, but the maximum rate of utilization was faster for amino acids, carbohydrates and polymers t㏊n for amides, miscellaneous and carboxylic acids, and carbon sources utilization efficiency were all higher in 9-year t㏊n in 4-year alfalfa stand.

토양으로부터 직접 추출한 DNA를 cross hybridization하는 방법을 통해서 서로 다른 토양 환경 간에 미생물 군집의 유전형적 유사성과 상대적 다양성을 비교하였다. 그 결과 소나무삼림토양이 다른 토양에 비해 상대적 다양성이 높은 것으로 밝혀졌으며, 경작지, 나지, 초지, 신갈삼림 순으로 다양성 정도를 나타내었다. 또한 유전형적 유사성의 정도에 따른 집괴 분석 결과 소나무삼림과 경작지 토양, 신갈나무삼림과 초지 토양 그리고 나지 등 세 부류로

This study investigated microbial communities and their diversity in a full-scale mesophilic anaerobic digester treating sewage sludge. Influent sewage sludge and anaerobic digester samples collected from a wastewater treatment plant in Busan were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing. It was found that the microbial community structure and diversity in the anaerobic digester could be affected by inoculation effect with influent sewage sludge. Nevertheless, distinct microbial communities were identified as the dominant microbial communities in the anaerobic digester. Twelve genera were identified as abundant bacterial communities, which included several groups of syntrophic bacteria communities, such as Candidatus Cloacimonas, Cloacimonadaceae W5, Smithella, which are (potential) syntrophic-propionate-oxidizing bacteria and Mesotoga and Thermovigra, which are (potential) syntrophic-acetate-oxidizing bacteria. Lentimicrobium, the most abundant genus in the anaerobic digester, may contribute to the decomposition of carbohydrates and the production of volatile fatty acids during the anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge. Of the methanogens identified, Methanollinea, Candidatus Methanofastidiosum, Methanospirillum, and Methanoculleus were the dominant hydrogenotrophic methanogens, and Methanosaeta was the dominant aceticlastic methanogens. The findings may be used as a reference for developing microbial indicators to evaluate the process stability and process efficiency of the anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge.

The present study investigated the effect of ammonia load on microbial communities in mesophilic anaerobic digestion of propionic acid. A laboratory-scale continuous anaerobic digester treating propionic acid as a sole organic substrate was operated under non-inhibitory condition and inhibitory conditions with ammonia (1.5 g and 3.5 g ammonia-N/L, respectively), and bacterial and archaeal communities in the steady states of each ammonia condition were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing. Thirteen bacterial families were detected as abundant bacterial groups in mesophilic anaerobic digestion of propionic acid. Increase in ammonia concentration resulted in significant shifts in microbial community structures. Syntorophobacter, Pelotomaculum, and Thermovigra were determined as the dominant groups of (potential) propionate oxidizing bacteria in the non-inhibitory condition, whereas Cryptanaerobacter and Aminobacterium were the dominant groups of (potential) propionate oxidizing bacteria in the ammonia-inhibitory condition. Methanoculleus and Methanosaeta were the dominant methanogens. Acetate-oxidation coupled with hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis might be enhanced with increases in the relative abundances of Methanoculleus and Tepidanaerobacter acetatoxydans under the ammonia-inhibitory condition. The results of the present study could be a valuable reference for microbial management of anaerobic digestion systems that are exposed to ammonia inhibition and propionic acid accumulation.

Agricultural practices are known to have a crucial influence not only on soil physico-chemical properties but also on microbial communities. To investigate the effect of farming practices on soil microbial communities, a total of 10 soil samples were collected, including five conventional and five organic farming soils cultivated with peppers in plastic greenhouse. We conducted barcorded-pyrosequencing of V1-V3 regions of 16S rRNA genes to examine soil microbial communities of two different farming practices. Taxonomic classification of the microbial communities at the phylum level indicated that a total of 22 bacterial phyla were present across all samples. Among them, seven abundant phyla (>3%) including Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, and Gemmatimonadetes were found, and Proteobacteria (33.0 ± 5.7%), Actinobacteria (19.9 ± 9.7%), and Firmicutes (13.6 ± 5.0%) comprised more than 66% of the relative abundance of the microbial communities. Organic farming soils showed higher relative abundances of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, while Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi were more abundant in conventional farming soils. Notably, the genera Bacillus (higher in organic farming soils) and Streptomyces (higher in conventional farming soils) exhibited significant variation in relative abundance between organic and conventional farming soils. Finally, correlation analysis identified significant relationships (p<0.05) between soil chemical properties, in particular, pH and organic matter content and microbial communities. Taken together, this study demonstrated that the changes of soil physico-chemical properties by agricultural farming practices effected significantly (p<0.05) on soil microbial communities.

There is a rising interest of depletion of deposited fossil fuel and environmental pollution, inducing extensive studies to find new alternative sustainable energy sources to replace current petroleum based energy usage. As one of solutions, anaerobic digestion (AD) treating organic wastes has been considered one of the most promising processes owing to its sustainability, low production of sludge, unnecessariness of aeration, and biogas generation. Swine wastewater is characterized by high strength of organic matter contents, so it is regarded as a potential feedstock to produce methane through AD process. To investigate the functional relationship between the microbial communities and anaerobic process performance, regular seasonal sampling was done at four full scale anaerobic digesters treating swine wastewater in South Korea for two years. As results of process and microbial community analyses, chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency was monitored to proportional to those of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. Methanogenic and bacterial populations were also positively related to the removal efficiencies of carbohydrates and lipids. However, proteins removal efficiency was independent of microbial population. It means that microbial communities in full scale anaerobic digesters are most likely to be mainly associated with carbohydrates and/or lipids metabolisms, indicating that proteins may be putative recalcitrant contents in wastewater. The microbial population tends to be more affected by places rather than seasons; however, with respect to seasons, the highest species abundances were observed mainly at winter. This implied that rising temperature in the anaerobic digesters in summer would be not suitable for the growth of mesophilic microorganisms, known to be predominant in anaerobic process. Actually, this speculation is supported by the fact that the highest removal efficiency of COD was measured at winter samples. The marked information in this study must provide a real insight into the effective field operation of anaerobic digestion.