Project description:Anthropogenic nutrient inputs alter soil biodiversity; however, it remains largely unknown whether changes in soil microeukaryotes (fungi and protists) are primarily driven by direct effects, such as modifications in soil properties, or by indirect effects, such as plant diversity loss. To disentangle these mechanisms, we investigated the long-term effects (11 years) of fertilization and manipulated plant diversity (1, 2, or 4 plant species) on soil microeukaryote communities in a temperate grassland experiment using long-amplicon rRNA sequencing. Our results indicate that fertilization generally had a stronger influence on microeukaryote communities than plant species richness. Fertilization altered the community composition of fungi and protists, increased OTU richness by 20.8% and 52.7%, respectively, and shifted community dominance from fungi to protists. Regarding plant diversity, we observed an effect exclusively on the protist community. Changes were primarily explained by increased plant biomass (driven by both fertilization and plant diversity) and by higher soil phosphorus and lower soil pH levels (driven exclusively by fertilization). Regarding life strategies, we observed synergistic treatment effects: fertilization primarily enhanced fungal saprophytes (only richness), fungal animal pathogens, and protist consumers, whereas plant diversity affected phototrophic protists (reduction) and protist animal pathogens (enhancement). Notably, fertilization and plant diversity decline together led to a cumulative increase in fungal plant pathogens. In conclusion, we highlight that fertilisation alone has a significant effect on soil microeukaryotes, while the additional decline in plant diversity affects different soil groups that are not directly affected by fertilisation. This synergistic pattern indicates that fertilization can influence the entire microeukaryote community through direct and indirect mechanisms, with a cumulative enhancement on certain groups, such as plant pathogens.

Project description:Background: The Scylla paramamosain is a very important aquaculture crustacean species in the southeast coastal areas of China including Shantou. For the past few years, mud crab cultured in Niutianyang of Shantou suffered from serious diseases, especially the bacterial diseases (such as Vibrio parahaemolyticus). In eukaryotes, small RNAs can regulate gene expression in post-transcription to act on host-pathogen interaction system. Aims: V.parahaemolyticus isolated from Shantou Niutianyang crab culture area was injected to S.paramamosains to carry out an essential analysis on global miRNA expression in diverse tissues between two groups by the Illumina Solex deep sequencing technology. Methodology:To examine the relationship between mud crab miRNA expression and the bacterial pathogen, we collected mixed two pools of equal amounts of RNA from 7 different mud crab tissues (mesenteron, heart, liver, gill, brain, muscle and blood) and sequencing by Illumine/Solexa deep sequencing technology under normal conditions and during infection with V.parahaemolyticus. The high throughput sequencing resulted in 19,144,358 and 18,559,070 raw reads corresponding to 17,496,577 and 16,888,096 high-quality mappable reads for the normal and infected mixed pools, respectively. Stem-loop RT-qPCRs were used to confirm the microRNAs expression in different tissues of two pools. The results show that miRNAs might play a key role in regulating gene expression during mud crab S.paramamosain infection with V.parahaemolyticus. Conclusions: We identified a large number of miRNAs during the mud crab Scylla paramamosain infection with V.parahaemolyticus, some of which are differentially expressed between the treatments and the controls. The study provides an opportunity for further understanding of small RNA function in the regulation of molecular response and gives us clues for further studies of the mechanisms of V.parahaemolyticus infection in mud crab. Examination of miRNA expression in normal Scylla paramamosain group and the Scylla paramamosain infected with Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Project description:Because of severe abiotic limitations, Antarctic soils represent simplified ecosystems, where microorganisms are the principle drivers of nutrient cycling. This relative simplicity makes these ecosystems particularly vulnerable to perturbations, like global warming, and the Antarctic Peninsula is among the most rapidly warming regions on the planet. However, the consequences of the ongoing warming of Antarctica on microorganisms and the processes they mediate are unknown. Here, using 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing and qPCR, we report a number of highly consistent changes in microbial community structure and abundance across very disparate sub-Antarctic and Antarctic environments following three years of experimental field warming (+ 0.5-2°C). Specifically, we found significant increases in the abundance of fungi and bacteria and in the Alphaproteobacteria-to-Acidobacteria ratio. These alterations were linked to a significant increase in soil respiration. Furthermore, the shifts toward generalist or opportunistic bacterial communities following warming weakened the linkage between bacterial diversity and functional diversity. Warming also increased the abundance of some organisms related to the N-cycle, detected as an increase in the relative abundance of nitrogenase genes via GeoChip microarray analyses. Our results demonstrate that soil microorganisms across a range of sub-Antarctic and Antarctic environments can respond consistently and rapidly to increasing temperatures, thereby potentially disrupting soil functioning. We conducted in situ warming experiments for three years using open-top chambers (OTCs) at one sub-Antarctic (Falkland Islands, 52ºS) and two Antarctic locations (Signy and Anchorage Islands, 60ºS and 67ºS respectively) (see Supplementary Fig. 1 for a map). OTCs increased annual soil temperature by an average of 0.8°C (at a depth of 5 cm), resulting in 8-43% increase in positive-degree days annually and a decrease in freeze-thaw cycle frequency by an average of 15 cycles per year (8). At each location, we included densely vegetated and bare fell-field soils in the experimental design for a total of six environments. Densely vegetated and bare environments represent two contrasting environments for Antarctic soil microorganisms, with large differences in terms of C and N inputs to soils. Massively parallel pyrosequencing (Roche 454 GS FLX Titanium) of 16S rRNA gene amplicons was used to follow bacterial diversity and community composition [GenBank Accession Numbers: HM641909-HM744649], and functional gene microarrays (GeoChip 2.0)(11) were used to assess changes in functional gene distribution. Bacterial and fungal communities were also quantified using real-time PCR.

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