The ubiquitous soil verrucomicrobial clade 'Candidatus Udaeobacter' shows preferences for acidic pH. Issue 6 (29th August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Willms, Inka M.; Bolz, Simon H.; Yuan, Jingyue; Krafft, Lisa; Schneider, Dominik; Schöning, Ingo; Schrumpf, Marion; Nacke, Heiko
• Is Part Of: Environmental microbiology reports. Volume 13:Issue 6(2021)
• Page Start: 878
• Page End: 883
• Publication Date: 2021-08-29
• Subjects: Microbial ecology -- Periodicals; Environmental Microbiology -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 579.17
• DOI: 10.1111/1758-2229.13006
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1758-2229

Abstract

Abstract: Members of the verrucomicrobial clade ' Candidatus Udaeobacter' rank among the most dominant bacterial phylotypes in soil. Nevertheless, despite this global prevalence, in‐depth analyses with respect to pH preferences of ' Ca . Udaeobacter' representatives are still lacking. Here, we utilized a recently designed primer pair, specifically targeting ' Ca . Udaeobacter', to investigate links between soil pH and the abundance as well as phylotype composition of this largely unexplored verrucomicrobial clade. Based on 150 forest and 150 grassland soils, comprising a broad pH range, we determined the highest total abundance of ' Ca . Udaeobacter' in strongly acidic soil (pH, ~5.1) and, noteworthy, in ultra‐acidic soil (pH < 3.5) and at a pH ≥ 7, its abundance drastically declined. When we analysed the six most dominant amplicon sequence variants affiliated with ' Ca . Udaeobacter' separately, their abundances peaked within a pH range of approximately 4.7–5.2, and only in one case at slightly acidic soil pH (pH, 6.1). Our study benefits from a combination of quantitative real‐time PCR and high‐throughput amplicon sequencing, enabling for the first time a highly specific abundance analysis of representatives affiliated with ' Ca . Udaeobacter', which revealed that this globally abundant verrucomicrobial clade shows preferences for acidic soil.