Effect of temperature change on the composition of the bacterial and archaeal community potentially involved in the turnover of acetate and propionate in methanogenic rice field soil

• Published in: FEMS microbiology ecology Vol. 73; no. 2; pp. 215 - 225
• Main Authors: Noll, Matthias, Klose, Melanie, Conrad, Ralf
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.08.2010; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Acetates - metabolism; Acetic acid; Archaea; Archaea - genetics; Archaea - metabolism; Bacteria; Bacteria - genetics; Bacteria - metabolism; Communities; Community composition; Community involvement; Community structure; Composition; DNA, Archaeal - genetics; DNA, Bacterial - genetics; Ecology; Ecosystem; Fractionation; Isotope fractionation; Italy; Methane - biosynthesis; Methanogenesis; Microbiology; Microorganisms; Oryza - microbiology; Oryza sativa; Oxidizing agents; Phylogeny; Polymorphism; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; Propionates - metabolism; Propionic acid; Restriction fragment length polymorphism; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Soil - analysis; Soil investigations; Soil Microbiology; Soil structure; Soil temperature; Soils; Stable isotopes; syntrophic acetate oxidation; Temperature; Temperature effects; terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism; thermophilic microbial community; Bacteria; thermophilic microbial community; syntrophic acetate oxidation; terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism; Archaea
• ISSN: 0168-6496; 1574-6941
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2010.00883.x

The microbial community structure was investigated together with the path of methane production in Italian rice field soil incubated at moderate (35 °C) and high (45 °C) temperature using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and stable isotope fractionation. The structure of both the archaeal and bacterial communities differed at 35 °C compared with 45 °C, and acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis dominated, respectively. Changing the incubation of the 45 °C soil to different temperatures (25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 °C) resulted in a dynamic change of both microbial community structure and stable isotope fractionation. In all treatments, acetate first accumulated and then decreased. Propionate was also transiently produced and consumed. It is noteworthy that acetate was also consumed at thermophilic conditions, although archaeal community composition and stable isotope fractionation indicated that acetoclastic methanogenesis did not operate. Instead, acetate must have been consumed by syntrophic acetate oxidizers. The transient accumulation and subsequent consumption of acetate at thermophilic conditions was specifically paralleled by terminal restriction fragments characteristic for clostridial cluster I, whereas those of clostridial clusters I and III, Acidaminococcaceae and Heliobacteraceae, paralleled the thermophilic turnover of both acetate and propionate.