Today, soil microbiologists are able to to quantify the diversity of soil microorganisms and use molecular methods such as oligonucleotide fingerprint groupings (OFRG), rRNA intergenic spacer analysis (RISA) to analyse certain microbes. Yet determining ecological function remains elusive. What methods show some promise in this regard?
Complete genome sequencing for each microbe will help to find its function in soil community. Other methods listed by you are will not help.
According my opinion to study "the ecological function of each microbe within a soil sample" (see your question) is not so important - it is non-sence. Processes and substrates transformation in soil are the activities of soil complex microflora. So I prefer complex tests like enzyme activities, substrate transformations (for example using Biolog or Micro-La-test), respiration, nitrification, etc. Sometimes comparison of basal/control and potential test with different substrates can be useful especially during stres condition study.
Karel
Hello Jakob, according to my experience, very promising methods to determine microbial activity indicators are enzyme kinetics, substrate induced growth respiration and RNA sequencing
regards Sebastian
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