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Temporal dynamics of microbial communities in the rhizosphere of two genetically modified (GM) maize hybrids in tropical agrosystems

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Abstract

The use of genetically modified (GM) plants still raises concerns about their environmental impact. The present study aimed to evaluate the possible effects of GM maize, in comparison to the parental line, on the structure and abundance of microbial communities in the rhizosphere. Moreover, the effect of soil type was addressed. For this purpose, the bacterial and fungal communities associated with the rhizosphere of GM plants were compared by culture-independent methodologies to the near-isogenic parental line. Two different soils and three stages of plant development in two different periods of the year were included. As evidenced by principal components analysis (PCA) of the PCR-DGGE profiles of evaluated community, clear differences occurred in these rhizosphere communities between soils and the periods of the year that maize was cultivated. However, there were no discernible effects of the GM lines as compared to the parental line. For all microbial communities evaluated, soil type and the period of the year that the maize was cultivated were the main factors that influenced their structures. No differences were observed in the abundances of total bacteria between the rhizospheres of GM and parental plant lines.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ). Thanks are also due to the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (CNPq) for providing a fellowship to Simone Cotta to come over to the Groningen Microbial Ecology laboratory. The Soil Biotechnology Foundation is acknowledged for providing financial support to Armando C F Dias and received a graduate fellowship from FAPESP (no. 2008/54013-8).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Genética Microbiana, Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Bloco I Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, CEP 21941-590, Brazil

    Simone Raposo Cotta & Lucy Seldin

  2. Departamento de Ciência do Solo, Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, Universidade de São Paulo, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil

    Armando Cavalcante Franco Dias

  3. EMBRAPA/CNPMS - Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Centro Nacional de Pesquisas de Milho e Sorgo, Sete Lagoas, MG, Brazil

    Ivanildo Evódio Marriel & Eliane Aparecida Gomes

  4. Department of Microbial Ecology, Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies (CEES), University of Groningen (RUG), Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Jan Dirk van Elsas

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  1. Simone Raposo Cotta
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  2. Armando Cavalcante Franco Dias
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  3. Ivanildo Evódio Marriel
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  4. Eliane Aparecida Gomes
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  5. Jan Dirk van Elsas
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  6. Lucy Seldin
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Correspondence to Lucy Seldin.

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Cotta, S.R., Dias, A.C.F., Marriel, I.E. et al. Temporal dynamics of microbial communities in the rhizosphere of two genetically modified (GM) maize hybrids in tropical agrosystems. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 103, 589–601 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-012-9843-7

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