10.7 Conclusions
Herein we have described the benefits being derived from the development of SIP alongside related caveats in the context of linking microbial phylogeny and function in soil environments. It is clear from the increasing frequency of publications in which SIP plays a role that it has great utility in its various guises, even in soil environments. We believe that with considered application SIP has the potential to confirm or discover the identity of microbes responsible for a large range of processes of interest to humans both in fundamental ecology and bioremediation. Despite this, we would still argue that there is room for methodological improvement. Ideally, we require a SIP methodology that allows the quantification of label incorporation in conjunction with sequencing based phylogenetic resolution. Further, it is important to emphasise that SIP can only penetrate the relationship between microbial community composition and function when the function of interest involves anabolic activity. There are countless important activities partaken by microbes that do not involve substrate assimilation. Despite the promises of SIP, microbial ecologists have at hand the challenge of developing even more ingenious means of unravelling the relationship between specific taxa and non-assimilatory functions.
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Manefield, M., Griffiths, R.I., Bailey, M.J., Whiteley, A.S. (2006). Stable Isotope Probing: A Critique of Its Role in Linking Phylogeny and Function. In: Nannipieri, P., Smalla, K. (eds) Nucleic Acids and Proteins in Soil. Soil Biology, vol 8. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg . https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-29449-X_10
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