Abstract
Ecological theory suggests that microbial communities with greater microbial diversity would be less susceptible to invasion by potential opportunistic pathogens. We investigated whether the survival of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the wheat rhizosphere would be affected by the presence of natural and constructed microbial communities of various diversity levels. Three levels of microbial community diversity were derived from wheat roots by a dilution/extinction approach. These wheat rhizosphere inocula, as well as a gnotobiotic microbial community consisting of seven culturable wheat rhizobacterial isolates, were introduced into the nutrient solution of hydroponically grown wheat plants on the day of planting. Phenotypic characterization of the culturable microbial communities on R2A medium, Shannon microbial diversity index, community-level physiological profiles, and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms were used to assess the varying microbial diversity levels. At day 7 the roots were invaded with P. aeruginosa and the number of P. aeruginosa colony forming units per root were measured at day 14. The average number of surviving P. aeruginosa cells was 3.52, 4.90, 7.18, 6.65 log10 cfu/root in the high, medium, low, and gnotobiotic microbial community diversity level treatments, respectively. The invasibility of the rhizosphere communities by P. aeruginosa was inversely related to the level of diversity from the dilution extinction gradient. The gnotobiotic community did not confer protection against P. aeruginosa invasion. Although these data indicate that invasibility is inversely related to diversity, further study is needed to both reproduce these findings and define the specific mechanisms of the diversity effect.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
RM Atlas R Bartha (1993) Microbial Ecology EditionNumber3 Benjamin Cummings Redwood City, CA
E Avaniss-Aghajani K Jones (1994) ArticleTitleA molecular technique for identification of bacteria using small subunit ribosomal RNA sequences Biotechniques 17 144–146 Occurrence Handle7946297
DA Barber (1967) ArticleTitleThe effect of microorganisms on the absorption of inorganic nutrients by intact plants J Exp Bot 18 163–169
M Begon JL Harper CR Townsend (1996) Ecology: Individuals, Populations, and Communities EditionNumber3 Blackwell Science Osney Mead, Oxford
G Berg AG Seech H Lee JT Trevors (1990) ArticleTitleIdentification and characterization of a soil bacterium with extracellular emulsifying activity J Environ Sci Health A25 753–764
PB Bodey R Bolivar V Fainstein L Jadeja (1983) ArticleTitleInfections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa Rev Infect Dis 5 279–313 Occurrence Handle6405475
MF Claridge HA Dawah MR Wilson (1997) Species: The Units of Biodiversity EditionNumber1 Chapman & Hall London
BG Clement LE Kehl KL DeBord CL Kitts (1998) ArticleTitleTerminal restriction fragment patterns (TRFPs), a rapid, PCR-based method for the comparison of complex bacterial communities J Microbiol Methods 31 135–142 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0167-7012(97)00105-X
RR Colwell (1997) ArticleTitleMicrobial diversity: the importance of exploration and conservation J Ind Microbiol Biotech 18 302–307 Occurrence Handle10.1038/sj.jim.2900390
EA Curl B Truelove (1986) The Rhizosphere Springer-Verlag New York
JL Garland AL Mills (1991) ArticleTitleClassification and characterization of heterotrophic microbial communities based on patterns of community-level sole carbon-source utilization Appl Environ Microbiol 57 2351–2359
Garland, JL, Mills, AL (1994) A community-level physiological approach for studying microbial communities. In: Ritz, K, Dighton, J, Giller, KE (Eds.) Beyond Biomass, Wiley-Sayce
JL Garland (1997) ArticleTitleAnalysis and interpretation of community-level physiological profiles in microbial ecology FEMS Microbiol Ecol 24 289–300 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0168-6496(97)00061-5
E Glimm H Heuer B Engelen K Smalla H Backhaus (1997) ArticleTitleStatistical comparisons of community catabolic profiles J Microbiol Methods 30 71–80 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0167-7012(97)00046-8
BS Griffiths K Ritz RE Wheatley HL Kuan B Boag S Christensen F Ekelund S Sørensen S Muller J Bloem (2001) ArticleTitleAn examination of the biodiversity–ecosystem function relationship in arable soil microbial communities Soil Biol Biochem 33 1713–1722 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0038-0717(01)00094-3
CA Hackett BS Griffiths (1997) ArticleTitleStatistical analysis of the time-course of Biolog substrate utilization J Microbiol Methods 30 63–69 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0167-7012(97)00045-6
A Hector E Bazely-White M Loreau S Ottway B Schmid (2002) ArticleTitleOveryielding in grassland communities: testing the sampling effect hypothesis with replicated biodiversity experiments Ecol Lett 6 502–511 Occurrence Handle10.1046/j.1461-0248.2002.00337.x
W Hitzl M Henrich M Kessel H Insam (1997) ArticleTitleApplication of multvariate analysis of variance and related techniques in soil studies with substrate utilization tests J Microbiol Methods 30 81–89 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0167-7012(97)00047-X
DR Hoagland DI Arnon (1938) The Water-Culture Method for Growing Plants Without Soil Univ Cal Agri Exper Berkley CA
JE Hobbie RJ Daley S Jasper (1977) ArticleTitleUse of Nucleopore filters for counting bacteria by fluorescence microscopy Appl Environ Microbiol 33 1225–1228 Occurrence Handle327932
L Kerkhoff M Santoro J Garland (1999) ArticleTitleResponse of soybean rhizosphere communities to human hygiene water addition as determined by community level physiological profiling (CLPP) and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis FEMS Microbiol Lett 184 95–101 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0378-1097(99)00671-0
A Konopka L Oliver RF Turco SuffixJr (1998) ArticleTitleThe use of carbon substrate utilization patterns in environmental and ecological microbiology Microb Ecol 35 103–115 Occurrence Handle10.1007/s002489900065 Occurrence Handle9541547
D Lane (1991) 16S/23S rRNA sequencing E Stackenbrandt M Goodfellow (Eds) Nucleic Acid Techniques in Bacterial Systematics John Wiley & Sons New York
W Liu TL Marsh H Cheng LJ Forney (1997) ArticleTitleCharacterization of microbial diversity by determining terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms of genes encoding 16S rRNA Appl Environ Microbiol 63 4516–4522 Occurrence Handle9361437
A Morales JL Garland DV Lim (1996) ArticleTitleSurvival of potentially pathogenic human-associated bacteria in the rhizosphere of hydroponically-grown wheat FEMS Microbiol Ecol 20 155–162 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0168-6496(96)00020-7 Occurrence Handle11539850
J McGrady-Steed PM Harris PJ Morin (1997) ArticleTitleBiodiversity regulates ecosystem predictability Nature 390 162–165 Occurrence Handle10.1038/36561
AM Osborn ERB Moore KN Timmis (2000) ArticleTitleAn evaluation of terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis for the study of microbial community structure and dynamics Envron Microbiol 2 39–50 Occurrence Handle10.1046/j.1462-2920.2000.00081.x
S Naeem S Li (1997) ArticleTitleBiodiversity enhances ecosystem reliability Nature 390 507–509 Occurrence Handle10.1038/37348
InstitutionalAuthorNameSAS Institute (1998) SAS/STAT Users Guide, Release EditionNumber6 SAS Institute Cary, NC
CE Shannon W Weaver (1963) The Mathematical Theory of Communication University of Illinois Press Urbana, IL
WJ Staddon LC Duchesne JT Trevors (1997) ArticleTitleMicrobial diversity and community structure of postdisturbance forest soils as determined by sole-carbon-source utilization patterns Microb Ecol 34 125–130 Occurrence Handle10.1007/s002489900042 Occurrence Handle9230100
RR Sokal FJ Rohlf (1995) Biometry: The Principles and Practice of Statistics in Biological Research EditionNumber3 State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY, W.H. Freeman New York
D Tilman (1997) ArticleTitleThe influence of functional diversity and composition on ecosystem processes Science 277 1300–1302 Occurrence Handle10.1126/science.277.5330.1300
D Tilman (1997) ArticleTitleCommunity invasibility, recruitment limitation, and grassland biodiversity Ecology 78 81–92
JC Zak MR Willig DL Moorhead HG Wildman (1994) ArticleTitleFunctional diversity of microbial communities: a quantitative approach Soil Biol Biochem 26 1101–1108 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0038-0717(94)90131-7
Acknowledgments
Pseudomonas aeruginosa UG2Lr was provided by Dr. Jack Trevors, the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. This research was supported by a Florida Space Grant Consortium Program (FSGCP) grant and Dynamac, Corp (Life Sciences Support Facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, NASA Kennedy Space Center, FL).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Matos, A., Kerkhof, L. & Garland, J.L. Effects of Microbial Community Diversity on the Survival of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the Wheat Rhizosphere. Microb Ecol 49, 257–264 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-004-0179-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-004-0179-3