Carbon-driven enrichment of the crucial nitrate-reducing bacteria in limed peat soil microcosms

Bacteria of Dechloromonas were recognized as potential functional important denitrifiers in a long-term shell sand-amended peat soil. Different microcosms in a solid matrix and slurry systems with the addition of carbon and nitrogen sources, for example, clover leaves, glutamate and nitrate, were established. The bacterial community structures were analysed by pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene to select the conditions for enriching bacteria of Dechloromonas. The results showed that a relatively even bacterial community in the initial soil shifted to communities dominated by a few types of nitrate-reducing bacteria after the incubation, which strongly responded to the carbon substrates addition and consumption. The bacteria of several genera including Dechloromonas, Pseudomonas, Clostridium, Aeromonas and Ferribacterium were significantly enriched after a certain period of time. The bacteria of Dechloromonas became one of the most predominant bacteria in the incubated community. Especially when added the mixed carbon substrates into the solid soil matrix, as high as 34% of abundance was detected. This study proved that the functional important bacteria from the genus of Dechloromonas could be enriched to an extremely high abundance by using proper culture condition which will benefit to the isolation or direct metagenomics study for Dechloromonas. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The study of key players in a microbial community is always of important. In this study, the functional important denitrifiers in a shell sand-amended peat soil were investigated. Using different carbon sources in the incubation, we found the bacteria from the genus of Dechloromonas were enriched to an abundance of higher than 34% with several other denitrifiers together. This work provides us helpful insights not only for knowing the diversity of denitrifiers in the studied peat soil, but also for understanding their response to the carbon sources and the culture conditions.