Host species, microhabitat and time of the year modulate the community structure of diazotrophic microorganisms in the Amazon rainforest

Author(s)

Endrews Delbaje

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2018-07-03

Examining board members

Marcio Rodrigues Lambais; Ademir Durrer Bigaton; Alice de Sousa Cassetari; Marli de Fatima Fiore

• Advisor: Marcio Rodrigues Lambais

Abstract

There is increasing recognition of the importance of assimbiotic diazotrophic microorganisms in tropical forests. In recent years, it has been shown that their contributions to the nitrogen inputs can be even higher than the contributions of symbiotic systems in natural ecosystems. However, the diversity and the mechanisms driving the assembling of the communities of assimbiotic diazotrophs in tropical forests are poorly understood. To better understand the diversity and assembling of the diazothrophs communities in the Amazon forest, the assimbiotic diazotrophs in the phyllosphere, litter and rhizosphere from nine tree species in three distinct times of year were evaluated using large-scale sequencing of 16S rRNA and nifH genes. The results showed that each microhabitat selected distinct diazotrophic communities, which were also affected by the time of year. The structure of the communities of putative diazotrophs were also dependent on the tree taxa, with greater selection effect on the phyllosphere. For all conditions studied, the communities of putiative diazothrophs showed high diversity indexes and OTU richness, with the highest Shannon and Chao1 indexes detected for the litter (9.57 and 5222, respectively), as compared to phyllosphere (7.4 and 3145, respectively) and rhizosphere (8.65 and 2868, respectively). The highest proportion of diazotrophic bacteria in relation to the total bacteria, based on the abundance of sequences of 16S rRNA genes, was observed in the phyllosphere (23%), as compared to litter (20%) and rhizosphere (18%). Overall, the relative abundance of dizothrophic bacteria in the bacterial community was not affected by the sampling time, even though the community structures varied, suggesting the occurrence of functional redundancy for BNF. In the three microhabitats, dominance of the phylum Proteobacteria, with frequencies of approximately 81% in the phyllosphere, 93% in the rhizosphere and 82% in the litter, was observed. Cyanobacteria showed significantly higher frequencies in the phyllosphere and litter, approximately 17% and 5%, respectively, as compared to rhizosphere. Firmicutes also showed high frequencies in the litter and rhizosphere, approximately 12 % and 5%, respectively. These results showed that the assimbiotic putative diazotrophic microorganisms associated with trees may play an important role in the input of nitrogen in tropical forests and that the structure of their communities is determined by the microhabitat, host taxon and time of year. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/11431-3 - Characterization of the diazotrophic bacterial communities structure in phyllosphere, rhizosphere and litter of arboreal species of the Amazon Rainforest
• Grantee: Endrews Delbaje
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master