Dynamic response of soil microbial communities and network to hymexazol exposure.

Fungicides are an essential component of current agricultural practices, but their extensive use has raised concerns about their effects on non-target soil microorganisms, which carry out essential ecosystem functions. However, despite the complexity of microbial communities, many studies investigating their response to fungicides focus only on bacteria or fungi at one point in time. In this study, we used amplicon sequencing to assess the effect of the fungicide hymexazol on the diversity, composition, and co-occurrence network of soil bacteria, fungi, and protists at 7, 21, and 60 days after application.

Microbiota responses to mutations affecting NO homeostasis in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Interactions between plants and microorganisms are pivotal for plant growth and productivity. Several plant molecular mechanisms that shape these microbial communities have been identified. However, the importance of nitric oxide (NO) produced by plants for the associated microbiota remains elusive.

Soil microbial community fragmentation reveals indirect effects of fungicide exposure mediated by biotic interactions between microorganisms.

Fungicides are used worldwide to improve crop yields, but they can affect non-target soil microorganisms which are essential for ecosystem functioning. Microorganisms form complex communities characterized by a myriad of interspecies interactions, yet it remains unclear to what extent non-target microorganisms are indirectly affected by fungicides through biotic interactions with sensitive taxa. To quantify such indirect effects, we fragmented a soil microbial community by filtration to alter biotic interactions and compared the effect of the fungicide hymexazol between fractions in soil microcosms.

Manipulating the physical distance between cells during soil colonization reveals the importance of biotic interactions in microbial community assembly.

Background: Microbial communities are of tremendous importance for ecosystem functioning and yet we know little about the ecological processes driving the assembly of these communities in the environment. Here, we used an unprecedented experimental approach based on the manipulation of physical distance between neighboring cells during soil colonization to determine the role of bacterial interactions in soil community assembly. We hypothesized that experimentally manipulating the physical distance between bacterial cells will modify the interaction strengths leading to differences in microbial community composition, with increasing distance between neighbors favoring poor competitors.