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Transgenic Bt rice has adverse impacts on CH4 flux and rhizospheric methanogenic archaeal and methanotrophic bacterial communities

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Abstract

Background and Aims

The effect of transgenic insect-resistant crops on soil microorganisms has become an issue of public concern. The goal of this study was to firstly realize the variation of in situ methane (CH4) emission flux and methanogenic and methanotrophic communities due to planting transgenic Bt rice (Bt) cultivar.

Methods

CH4 emitted from paddy soil was collected by static closed chamber technique. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and real-time PCR methods were employed to analyze methanogenic archaeal and methanotrophic bacterial community structure and abundance.

Results

Results showed that planting Bt rice cultivar effectively reduced in situ CH4 emission flux and methanogenic archaeal and methanotrophic bacterial community abundance and diversity. Data analysis showed that in situ CH4 emission flux increased significantly with the increase of methanogenic archaeal abundance (R 2 = 0.839, p < 0.001) and diversity index H′ (R 2 = 0.729, p < 0.05), whereas was not obviously related to methanotrophic bacterial community.

Conclusions

Our results suggested that the lower in situ CH4 emission flux from Bt soil may result from lower methanogenic archaeal community abundance and diversity, lower methanogenic activity and higher methanotrophic activity. Moreover, our results inferred that specific functional microorganisms may be a more sensitive indicator than the total archaeal, bacterial or fungal population to assess the effects of transgenic insect-resistant plants on soil microorganisms.

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Abbreviations

Bt:

Transgenic Bt rice

Ck:

Non-transgenic parental rice control

S1:

Seedling stage

S2:

Tillering stage

S3:

Mid-season aeration stage

S4:

Filling stage

S5:

Maturing stage

DGGE:

Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis

OTU:

Operational taxonomic unit

PCA:

Principal component analysis

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40830531), by the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (2008ZX08012-005 and 2011ZX08012-005), by the Academic Priority Development Program of Jiangsu Higher Education Institution of China (164320H101), and by the 211 Project for Nanjing Normal University (1843203623). We sincerely thank Professor Zhang Guoan at the College of Plant Science & Technology of Huazhong Agricultural University, for providing the transgenic and non-transgenic parental rice seeds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Cheng Han

  2. College of Geography Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Cheng Han, Wenhui Zhong, Weishou Shen & Zucong Cai

  3. Key Laboratory of Biosafety, Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Nanjing, 210042, China

    Biao Liu

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  1. Cheng Han
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  2. Wenhui Zhong
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  3. Weishou Shen
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  4. Zucong Cai
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  5. Biao Liu
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Correspondence to Wenhui Zhong or Biao Liu.

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Han, C., Zhong, W., Shen, W. et al. Transgenic Bt rice has adverse impacts on CH4 flux and rhizospheric methanogenic archaeal and methanotrophic bacterial communities. Plant Soil 369, 297–316 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-012-1522-y

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