Environmental Determinants of Microbial Biopolymer Degraders in Agricultural Soil

KO 2912/3-2

Von 10/2010

Projektleiter: Steffen Kolb, Harold L. Drake
Mitarbeiter: Adam Wieczorek, Stefanie Hetz, Stefanie Fröhlich

The structural polysaccharides cellulose and chitin of plants, fungi, and arthropods are major components of fresh organic matter in agricultural soils. These biopolymers are carbon sources of soil microbial communities linked to soil redox processes. Soil aggregates of water-unsaturated soil form natural boundaries of oxic conditions outside and oxygen-limited conditions inside. These biogeochemical interfaces lead to a highly heterogeneous oxygen distribution on a millimetre scale. The effects and mechanisms of the toxicity of herbicides on biopolymer degrading communities in such highly compartmentalized soils have not been resolved. The preceding project resolved phylogenetic identities of known and novel prokaryotes linked to cellulose degradation under both oxic and anoxic conditions, and demonstrated that the acidic herbicides Bentazon and MCPA impair microbial processes involved in cellulose degradation. The project of th SPP1315 second funding period will (I) identify chitin-degrading prokaryotes, fungi, and protists that are active in oxic and anoxic microzones, (II) determine the tolerance of various cellulolytic and chitinolytic taxa to Bentazon and MCPA, (III) characterize key chitin-degraders, and (IV) will quantitatively assess oxygen distribution during biopolymer degradation in an agricultural soil.

Publikationsliste dieses Projekts

Wieczorek, A; Hetz, S; Kolb, S: Microbial Responses to Chitin and Chitosan in Oxic and Anoxic Agricultural Soil Slurries, Biogeosciences, 11, 3339-3352 (2014) -- Details

Chatzinotas, A; Schellenberger, S; Glaser, K; Kolb, S: Assimilation of Cellulose-Derived Carbon by Microeukaryotes in Oxic and Anoxic Slurries of an Aerated Soil, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 79(18), 5777-5781 (2013) -- Details

Schellenberger, S; Drake, HL; Kolb, S: Impairment of Cellobiose-Degrading Soil Bacteria by Two Acidic Herbicides, FEMS Microbiology Letters, 327, 60-65 (2012) -- Details

Schellenberger, S; Drake, HL; Kolb, S: Functionally Redundant Cellobiose-Degrading Soil Bacteria Respond Differentially to Oxygen, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 77, 6043-6048 (2011) -- Details

Schellenberger, S; Kolb, S; Drake, HL: Metabolic Responses of Novel Cellulolytic and Saccharolytic Agricultural Soil Bacteria to Oxygen, Environmental Microbiology, 12 (4), 845-861 (2010) -- Details

Degelmann, DM; Kolb, S; Dumont, MG; Murrell, JC; Drake, HL: Enterobacteriaceae Facilitate the Anaerobic Degradation of Glucose by a Forest Soil, FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 68, 312-319 (2009) -- Details