Comparative analysis of bacterial communities assemblages associated with the phyllosphere, leaf litter and rhizosphere of tree species of the Amazon Forest

• Grant number: 17/14698-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: October 01, 2017
• End date: July 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Marcio Rodrigues Lambais
• Grantee: Julio Cezar Fornazier Moreira
• Supervisor: Jorge Luiz Mazza Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/15932-4 - Comparative analysis of bacterial communities in phyllosphere, litter and rhizosphere of tree species in the Amazon rain forest, BP.DR

Abstract

The Amazon forest represents the largest rainforest in the world, and plays a key role in the conservation of biodiversity. It has been observed that, in tree species of the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, the bacterial community structures associated with the phyllosphere, dermosphere and rhizosphere are unique and depend on the plant taxon, and that the intra-taxon similarities among communities are higher than the inter-taxon similarities. In order to determine whether the variation patterns of the bacterial communities associated with the phyllosphere, rhizosphere and litter of the Amazon forest are similar to those of the Atlantic rainforest, nine major tree species of the Amazon forest will be studied. The main goal of this proposal, which is linked to the FAPESP research project nº 2016/15932-4, is to implement bioinformatics tools applied to the integrated analysis of large and complex biological datasets at the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources of the University of California Davis (Davis, CA, US). Specifically, our objectives are: i) understanding the structure, diversity and temporal variability of bacterial communities associated to the phyllosphere, litter and rhizosphere of different tree species sampled at three seasons of the year, ii) identifying whether the spatial variability is determinant in the structuration of the bacterial communities associated to litter and rhizosphere, iii) determining and comparing the topographies of the networks of associations of bacterial taxa in the phyllosphere, litter and rhizosphere of different tree species at the three sampling seasons, iv) determining whether the functional plant traits shape the structure of the bacterial taxa association networks in the phyllosphere, v) determining whether different strains of the same bacterial species can be found on leaves of the same tree, and vi) estimating the functional potential of the bacterial communities based on current literature and determining the levels of functional rediundancy among the phyllosphere of different tree species. (AU)