High frequency of virus-infected bacterial cells in a sheep grazed pasture soil in New Zealand

Viruses cause significant mortality of microbes in aquatic environments and thus play a major role in biogeochemical cycling. While viruses are known to be present in soil, the rate of infection of bacteria, and therefore the potential for mortality and lysis, are unknown. In this study we measured...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soil biology & biochemistry 2010-05, Vol.42 (5), p.708-712
Main Authors: Bowatte, Saman, Newton, Paul C.D., Takahashi, Ryu, Kimura, Makoto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions
aquatic habitat
Bacteria
Bacterial mortality
bacteriophages
Biochemistry and biology
biogeochemical cycles
Biological and medical sciences
carbon dioxide
Chemical, physicochemical, biochemical and biological properties
cytolysis
elevated atmospheric gases
FACE
food animals
free air carbon dioxide enrichment facility
frequency
frequency of visibly infected cells
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Grazed pasture
pastures
Phage
Physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology of agricultural and forest soils
sheep
soil bacteria
soil fertility
Soil science
viability
Virus
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Summary:Viruses cause significant mortality of microbes in aquatic environments and thus play a major role in biogeochemical cycling. While viruses are known to be present in soil, the rate of infection of bacteria, and therefore the potential for mortality and lysis, are unknown. In this study we measured the frequency of viral infected of bacterial cells in soils from a New Zealand sheep grazed pasture under ambient or elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at the New Zealand Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment facility (NZ-FACE). Averaged across the CO 2 treatments, the frequency of visibly infected cells (FVIC) was 23%. This is far greater than the reported FVIC values for marine or fresh water environments. The average FVIC of soils under ambient and elevated atmospheric CO 2 conditions was 28% and 18% respectively. These results are discussed in relation to nutrient cycling in grazed pastures.
ISSN:0038-0717
1879-3428
DOI:10.1016/j.soilbio.2009.12.013