Environmental Factors Affect Acidobacterial Communities below the Subgroup Level in Grassland and Forest Soils.

In soil, Acidobacteria constitute on average 20% of all bacteria, are highly diverse, and are physiologically active in situ. However, their individual functions and interactions with higher taxa in soil are still unknown. Here, potential effects of land use, soil properties, plant diversity, and soil nanofauna on acidobacterial community composition were studied by cultivation-independent methods in grassland and forest soils from three different regions in Germany. The analysis of l6S rRNA gene clone libraries representing all studied soils revealed that grassland soils were dominated by subgroup Gp6 and forest soils by subgroup GpI Acidobacteria. The analysis of a large number of sites (n = 57) by 6S rRNA gene fingerprinting methods (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP] and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis [DGGE]) showed that Acidobactersa diversities differed between grassland and forest soils but also among the three different regions. Edaphic properties, such as PH, organic carbon, total nitrogen, C/N ratio, phosphorus, nitrate, ammonium, soil moisture, soil temperature, and soil respiration, had an impact on community composition as assessed by fingerprinting. However, interrelations with environmental parameters among subgroup terminal restriction fragments (T-RPs) differed significantly, e.g., different Gpl T-RF5 correlated positively or negatively with nitrogen content. Novel significant correlations of Acidobacteria subpopulations (i.e., individual populations within subgroups) with soil nanofauna and vascular plant diversity were revealed only by analysis of clone sequences. Thus, for detecting novel interrelations of environmental parameters with Acidobacteria, individual populations within subgroups have to be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]