Hi Chandandeep

The composition of soil microbiota is linked to the characteristic of the soil. It would give you a better understanding if the soil content is known. For instance, a soil rich in sulfate would have more sulfate reducing bacteria such as Desulfobacterales, whereas a soil with heavy metals would be rich in bacteria that are tolerant to heavy metals such as Cd2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+

By the way Proteobacteria phylum is gram-negative bacteria.

Good luck!

Yes, I understand, soil under study is deficient in nutrients and found to be rich in Actinobacteria but when the same soil was inoculated with Gram negative bacteria to observe changes in microbial community, the Phylum, Order , Class all shifted from Actinobacteria to Proteobacteria (which showed inoculated bacteria dominantly colonised in soil) but to my surprise the dominant Genera in inoculated soil were mostly Gram positive bacterial genera. I want inputs how is that possible and what factors bring about such changes.

Hope you got my query, so looking for possible ideologies

Thanks!

Hi Chandandeep,

Would be helpful if you could address couple questions; after the introduction of Proteobacteria, which are gram-positive bacteria, you observed a complete shift into the Proteobacteria (the introduced phylum) but although there is a community shift, you have still observed dominated gram-positive genera after the introduction of Proteobacteria, right? In other words, are these dominated gram-positive genera were existed before the introduction of the phylum Proteobacteria and remained dominate after the introduction? Are these dominated gram-positive genera from the phylum Actinobacteria or another phylum (if yes, please specify)?

As a matter of fact there is no reason why not an environment could present high diversity of any kind of microorganisms. It is requiered that the bacteria living there, have the metabolic and ecological abilities to thrive in the biological, chemical and physical conditions of this particular environment.

I do agree Luis, but the high population of Proteobacterias in specific soil should also favor colonisation of Gram negative genera in same soil. I agree that both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria have rights to colonise in natural environment but what are the reasons that in a soil where Proteobacterias are abundantly colonising, why cant Gram negative genera colonise whereas Gram positive genera are outnumbering

Thanks Tewodros for your further queries, I have messaged u details. TIA! It would be helpful...if I get some different perspectives

Many soil environments have abundant Proteobacteria, and abundant Gram positives. For example, this has been seen in many oil-impacted environments (which is what I am most familiar with). I don't see this as surprising given the known diversity in soil. Take a look at any community profiling in soil, like this paper, for an example: Article Bacterial Community Diversity of Oil-Contaminated Soils Asse...