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Fungal Communities in Soils: Soil Organic Matter Degradation

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Microbial Environmental Genomics (MEG)

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1399))

Abstract

Stable isotope probing (SIP) provides the opportunity to label decomposer microorganisms that build their biomass on a specific substrate. In combination with high-throughput sequencing, SIP allows for the identification of fungal community members involved in a particular decomposition process. Further information can be gained through gene-targeted metagenomics and metatranscriptomics, opening the possibility to describe the pool of genes catalyzing specific decomposition reactions in situ and to identify the diversity of genes that are expressed. When combined with gene descriptions of fungal isolates from the same environment, specific biochemical reactions involved in decomposition can be linked to individual fungal taxa. Here we describe the use of these methods to explore the cellulolytic fungal community in forest litter and soil.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation grant 13-06763S and by the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (RVO61388971).

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Correspondence to Petr Baldrian .

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Větrovský, T., Štursová, M., Baldrian, P. (2016). Fungal Communities in Soils: Soil Organic Matter Degradation. In: Martin, F., Uroz, S. (eds) Microbial Environmental Genomics (MEG). Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1399. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3369-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3369-3_5

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-3367-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-3369-3

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