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Microbial community biogeographic patterns in the rhizosphere of two Brazilian semi-arid leguminous trees

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Abstract

Arid environments are regular and well distributed over all continents and display drought characteristics whether full-time or seasonal. This study aims to characterize how the microbial communities of the rhizosphere of two leguminous trees from the Brazilian semi-arid biome the Caatinga are geographically and seasonally shaped, as well as the factors driving this variation. With that purpose, the soil rhizosphere from two leguminous trees (Mimosa tenuiflora and Piptadenia stipulacea (Benth.) Ducke) were sampled in two different seasons: rainy and drought at five different sites. Assessment of bacterial and archaeal communities occurred by T-RFLP analysis of 16S rRNA and archaeal amoA genes. By these means, it was observed that the seasons (wet and dry periods) are the factors that most influence the composition of the microbial community from both analyzed plants, except for the results obtained from the CCA applied to Archaeas. Furthermore, soil physical–chemical factors also had a significant influence on the community and indicated a geographical pattern of the bacterial community. It was not possible to observe significant modifications in the composition in relation to the plant species. We have seen that soil characteristics and rainfall were the factors that most influenced the microbial composition. Also, the bacterial community had a significant correlation with soil characteristics that indicates that these rhizosphere communities might be selected by environmental characteristics. Furthermore, the data suggest that climate plays a key role in structuring the microbial community of this biome.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the support of Cosme Corrêa dos Santos (UEFS) and Jorge Yoshio Tamashiro (UNICAMP) on identifying the plant species Mimosa tenuiflora and Piptadenia stipulacea (Benth.) Ducke, respectively. RGT was a recipient of a postdoctoral grant from FAPESP (2010/50799-7). This study was supported by Embrapa. The authors thank João Luiz da Silva, Rodrigo Mendes and Suikinai Santos for the support during sampling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Rodovia SP-340 km 127.5, Jaguariúna, SP, 13820-000, Brazil

    Milena Duarte Lançoni, Rodrigo Gouvêa Taketani, Vanessa Nessner Kavamura & Itamar Soares de Melo

  2. Soil Science Department, Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz”, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil

    Milena Duarte Lançoni & Vanessa Nessner Kavamura

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  1. Milena Duarte Lançoni
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  2. Rodrigo Gouvêa Taketani
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Correspondence to Rodrigo Gouvêa Taketani.

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Milena Duarte Lançoni and Rodrigo Gouvêa Taketani share first authorship.

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Lançoni, M.D., Taketani, R.G., Kavamura, V.N. et al. Microbial community biogeographic patterns in the rhizosphere of two Brazilian semi-arid leguminous trees. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 29, 1233–1241 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-013-1286-4

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