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The Microbiome of Eucalyptus Roots under Different Management Conditions and Its Potential for Biological Nitrogen Fixation

  • Plant Microbe Interactions
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A Correction to this article was published on 02 December 2017

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Abstract

Eucalyptus plantations offer a cost-effective and renewable source of raw material. There is substantial interest in improving forestry production, especially through sustainable strategies such as the use of plant growth-promoting bacteria. However, little is known about Eucalyptus microbiology. In this study, the endophytic bacterial community was assessed in Eucalyptus urograndis roots using culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques with plants grown under different conditions. Three phyla accounted for approximately 95% of the community, with Actinobacteria corresponding to approximately 59%. This contrasts with previous studies in which Actinobacteria accounted for only 5 to 10%. Our data also revealed a high diversity of bacteria, with 359 different genera but a high level of dominance. Six genera, Mycobacterium, Bradyrhizobium, Streptomyces, Bacillus, Actinospica, and Burkholderia, accounted for more than 50% of the classified sequences. We observed a significant influence of the treatments on some genera, causing changes in the bacterial community structure. The obtained data also suggest that Eucalyptus may benefit from biological nitrogen fixation, with many abundant genera being closely related to nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Using N-depleted media, we also cultured 95 bacterial isolates, of which 24 tested positive for the nifH gene and were able to maintain growth without any N source in the medium.

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  • 02 December 2017

    The original version of this article unfortunately contained mistakes in the first author’s name and the running page headers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LABEM—Laboratory of Biotechnology and Microbial Ecology—Institute of Microbiology Paulo de Góes, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 21941-902, Brazil

    Eduardo da Silva Fonseca & Caio Tavora Coelho da Costa Rachid

  2. LEMM—Laboratory of Microbial Molecular Ecology—Institute of Microbiology Paulo de Góes, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 21941-902, Brazil

    Raquel Silva Peixoto & Alexandre Soares Rosado

  3. Embrapa Solos, Rio de Janeiro, 22460-000, Brazil

    Fabiano de Carvalho Balieiro

  4. Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, USA

    James M. Tiedje

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  1. Eduardo da Silva Fonseca
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  2. Raquel Silva Peixoto
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  4. Fabiano de Carvalho Balieiro
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Correspondence to Caio Tavora Coelho da Costa Rachid.

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Funding

This work received funding from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Fapesp).

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The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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The original version of this article was revised: It contained mistakes in the first author’s name and the running page headers.

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Fonseca, E.S., Peixoto, R.S., Rosado, A.S. et al. The Microbiome of Eucalyptus Roots under Different Management Conditions and Its Potential for Biological Nitrogen Fixation. Microb Ecol 75, 183–191 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-017-1014-y

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