Plant species affect soil bacterial diversity and compositions. However, little is known about the role of dominant plant species in shaping the soil bacterial community during the restoration of sandy grasslands in Horqin Sandy Land, northern China. We established a mesocosm pots experiment to investigate short-term responses of soil bacterial diversity and composition, and the related soil pr...

A detailed understanding of microbial ecology in different supraglacial habitats is important due to the unprecedented speed of glacier retreat. Differences in bacterial diversity and community structure between glacial snow and glacial soil on the Chongce Ice Cap were assessed using 454 pyrosequencing. Based on rarefaction curves, Chao1, ACE, and Shannon indices, we found that bacterial divers...

The modern age of metagenomics has delivered unprecedented volumes of data describing the genetic and metabolic diversity of bacterial communities, but it has failed to provide information about coincident cellular morphologies. Much like metabolic and biosynthetic capabilities, morphology comprises a critical component of bacterial fitness, molded by natural selection into the many elaborate s...

Resource identity and composition structure bacterial community, which in turn determines the magnitude of bacterial processes and ecological services. However, the complex interaction between resource identity and bacterial community composition (BCC) has been poorly understood so far. Using aquatic microcosms, we tested whether and how resource identity interacts with BCC in regulating bacter...

BACKGROUND AND METHODS Assessing the effects of pesticide hazards on microbiological processes in the soil is currently based on analyses that provide limited insight into the ongoing processes. This study proposes a more comprehensive approach. The side effects of pesticides may appear as changes in the expression of specific microbial genes or as changes in diversity. To assess the impact of ...

Microbial ecology is the study of microbes in the natural environment and their interactions with each other. Investigating the nature of microorganisms residing within a specific habitat is an extremely important component of microbial ecology. Such microbial diversity surveys aim to determine the identity, physiological preferences, metabolic capabilities, and genomic features of microbial ta...

BACKGROUND Since 1982, specific serotypes of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) have been recognized as significant foodborne pathogens acquired from contaminated beef and, more recently, other food products. Cattle are the major reservoir hosts of these organisms, and while there have been advancements in food safety practices and industry standards, STEC still remains prevalent wit...

In vertebrates, variability at genes of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) represents an important adaptation for pathogen resistance, whereby high allelic diversity confers resistance to a greater number of pathogens. Pathogens can maintain diversifying selection pressure on their host's immune system that can vary in intensity based on pathogen richness, pathogen virulence, and length...