Microbial amendments alter protist communities within the soil microbiome

Wu Xiong, Rong Li, Sai Guo, Ida Karlsson, Zixuan Jiao, Weibing Xun, George A. Kowalchuk, Qirong Shen*, Stefan Geisen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Plant-beneficial microbes improve while pathogens reduce plant performance. When introduced in soils, such microbes can induce entire microbiome changes. However, the impact of those microbial introductions on protists – key predators within the soil microbiome – remain unknown. Here, we tracked how soil protists respond to bacterial (Bacillus and Ralstonia) and fungal (Trichoderma and Fusarium) introductions, with both microbial groups represented by one beneficial and one pathogenic taxon. We found that plant-beneficial Bacillus bacteria change the protist community structure. This community-shift was likely induced by an increased fungi/bacteria ratio, supported by a negative correlation of the fungi/bacteria ratio with the relative abundance of phagotrophic protists across all treatments. Our results indicate that microbial introductions can impact protist communities, thereby altering microbiome-derived multi-functionality.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)379-382
Number of pages4
JournalSoil Biology and Biochemistry
Volume135
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2019

Funding

We thank Prof. Dr. Michael Bonkowski and Dr. Anna-Maria Fiore-Donno from the University of Cologne and Dr. Alexandre Jousset and Nathalie Amacker from Utrecht University for the helpful suggestions. This research was supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China ( 2015CB150506 ), the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 31572212 ), Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest of Integrated Management Technology of Crop Wilt Disease ( 201503110 ), the Innovative Research Team Development Plan of the Ministry of Education of China ( IRT_17R56 ), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China ( KYT201802 ), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) joint network grant. Stefan Geisen was supported by NWO-VENI from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research ( 016.Veni.181.078 ). Wu Xiong was supported by NWO from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research ( ALWGR.2017.016 ). Appendix A

Keywords

  • Bacillus
  • Beneficial microbes
  • Fungi/bacteria ratio
  • Soil function
  • Soil protists

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