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Sustainable Agriculture: Role of Metagenomics and Metabolomics in Exploring the Soil Microbiota

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In Silico Approach for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Land-use change and agricultural management have important effects on soil microbiome, as they change the physical and chemical properties of soil. In addition, agricultural management (e.g., tillage, pesticide, and fertilizer applications) directly affects soil biodiversity by altering the physical and chemical properties of soil. Soil metagenomics, which comprises of isolation of soil DNA and the production and screening of clone libraries, can provide a cultivation-independent assessment of the largely untapped genetic reservoir of soil microbial communities. This approach has already led to the identification of novel genes and biomolecules. Metabolism of different microorganisms that change in response to different environmental conditions can be studied by analysis of metabolic footprinting. The concentration of extracellular metabolites varies depending on the factors including temperature, pH, and the concentration of nutrients. These factors affect the uptake and secretion of metabolites from soil. This chapter describes how these novel tools have helped to explore the microbiota of the soil and how these can be used as a guiding line to innovate new agricultural norms for sustainable environment.

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Acknowledgment

PB thanks DST-SERB: SB/YS/LS-213/2013 for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Neeraj Gupta, Siddharth Vats & Prachi Bhargava

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  1. Neeraj Gupta
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  2. Siddharth Vats
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  3. Prachi Bhargava
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Correspondence to Prachi Bhargava .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Life Sciences, PDM University, Bahadurgarh, Haryana, India

    Devendra K. Choudhary

  2. Centre for Life Sciences, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

    Manoj Kumar

  3. Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Ram Prasad

  4. Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Vivek Kumar

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Gupta, N., Vats, S., Bhargava, P. (2018). Sustainable Agriculture: Role of Metagenomics and Metabolomics in Exploring the Soil Microbiota. In: Choudhary, D., Kumar, M., Prasad, R., Kumar, V. (eds) In Silico Approach for Sustainable Agriculture. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0347-0_11

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