Description

Soils are arguably the most microbially diverse ecosystems. Physicochemical properties have been associated with the maintenance of this diversity. Yet, the role of microbial substrate specialization is largely unexplored since substrate utilization studies have focused on simple substrates, not the

Soils are arguably the most microbially diverse ecosystems. Physicochemical properties have been associated with the maintenance of this diversity. Yet, the role of microbial substrate specialization is largely unexplored since substrate utilization studies have focused on simple substrates, not the complex mixtures representative of the soil environment. Here we examine the exometabolite composition of desert biological soil crusts (biocrusts) and the substrate preferences of seven biocrust isolates. The biocrust's main primary producer releases a diverse array of metabolites, and isolates of physically associated taxa use unique subsets of the complex metabolite pool. Individual isolates use only 13−26% of available metabolites, with only 2 out of 470 used by all and 40% not used by any. An extension of this approach to a mesophilic soil environment also reveals high levels of microbial substrate specialization. These results suggest that exometabolite niche partitioning may be an important factor in the maintenance of microbial diversity.

Reuse Permissions
  • Downloads
    PDF (1.6 MB)

    Details

    Title
    • Exometabolite Niche Partitioning Among Sympatric Soil Bacteria
    Date Created
    2015-09-22
    Resource Type
  • Text
  • Collections this item is in
    Identifier
    • Digital object identifier: 10.1038/ncomms9289
    • Identifier Type
      International standard serial number
      Identifier Value
      2041-1723
    Note
    • The final version of this article, as published in Nature Communications, can be viewed online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9289

    Citation and reuse

    Cite this item

    This is a suggested citation. Consult the appropriate style guide for specific citation guidelines.

    Baran, R., Brodie, E. L., Mayberry-Lewis, J., Hummel, E., Rocha, U. N., Chakraborty, R., . . . Northen, T. R. (2015). Exometabolite niche partitioning among sympatric soil bacteria. Nature Communications, 6, 8289. doi:10.1038/ncomms9289

    Machine-readable links