Discrimination of methane-consuming bacteria in land use change between forestry-pasture at Amazon rainforest region

• Grant number: 18/02177-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Applied Microbiology
• Agreement: NSF - Dimensions of Biodiversity and BIOTA
• Principal Investigator: Tsai Siu Mui
• Grantee: Mariana Gomes Vicente
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 14/50320-4 - Dimensions US-BIOTA - São Paulo: collaborative research: integrating dimensions of microbial biodiversity across land use change in tropical forests, AP.BTA.TEM

Abstract

Methane is one of the main greenhouse effect gases and its cycle depends from microorganisms' activity in several phases, considering these are the unique natural source and drain of methane in soils. Typically, archea produce this gas while methanotrophs bacteria accomplish its consumption, since they are capable of using it as their energy source. Therefore, comprehend how methane fluxes and methanotrophic bacteria respond to changing of the use of Amazonian soil will bring relevant information about the prediction of impacts of human activity on climate changes. This research aims to evaluate how these different soil uses alter the occurrence and activity of high and low affinity methanotrophs (Gas fluxes) present in them, which is essential to understand the methane drain dynamic in the atmosphere. To accomplish this, there will be a microcosm with methane enrichment in the Amazonian and pasture soil samples collected in Santarém (PA) to evaluate the effects over the total bacterial community and methanotrophs, identifying those that act in high and low concentrations of methane. Then, the total soil DNA will be extracted (MOBIO protocol) and soil samples will be used for isolation of the methanotrophic bacteria. The genetic analyses will be performed using qPCR primers for molecular markers of 16S rRNA (Bacteria), pmoA, pmoA2 and mmoX (High and low affinity methanotrophs). (AU)