Plant Species Richness and the Root Economics Space Drive Soil Fungal Communities.

Trait-based approaches have been increasingly used to relate plants to soil microbial communities. Using the recently described root economics space as an approach to explain the structure of soil-borne fungal communities, our study in a grassland diversity experiment reveals distinct root trait strategies at the plant community level. In addition to significant effects of plant species richness, we show that the collaboration and conservation gradient are strong drivers of the composition of the different guilds of soil fungi.

Katarium polorum n. sp., n. g., a novel thecofilosean amoeba (Cercozoa, Rhizaria) from the polar oceans.

Thecate amoebae play important roles in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This study introduces a novel thecofilosean amoeba from Arctic and Antarctic sea sediments. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 18S rDNA sequence places it in the family Chlamydophryidae (order Tectofilosida, class Thecofilosea).

Two-way NxP fertilisation experiment on barley () reveals shift from additive to synergistic N-P interactions at critical phosphorus fertilisation level.

In a pot experiment, we investigated synergistic interaction of N and P fertilisation on barley biomass () on both shoot and root level with the aim to determine whether N-P interaction would be the same for all levels of N and P fertilisation. We further aimed to determine whether there was a critical level of N and/or P fertilisation rate, above which, a decrease in resource allocation to roots (as nutrient availability increased) could be demonstrated. Barley plants were grown from seed on a nutrient poor substrate and subjected to a two-way NxP fertilisation gradient using a modified Hoagland fertilisation solution.

The wastewater protist Rhogostoma minus (Thecofilosea, Rhizaria) is abundant, widespread, and hosts Legionellales.

Wastewater is treated by concerted actions of the microbial communities within bioreactors. Although protists (unicellular eukaryotes) are good bioindicators and important players influencing denitrification, nitrification, and flocculation, they are the least known organisms in WWTPs. The few recent environmental surveys of the protistan diversity in WWTPs show that the most abundant protistan sequences in WWTPs belong to Thecofilosea (Rhizaria).

Novel Endosymbionts in Rhizarian Amoebae Imply Universal Infection of Unrelated Free-Living Amoebae by Legionellales.

Legionellales-infected water is a frequent cause of local outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease and Pontiac fever. Decontaminations are difficult because Legionellales reproduce in eukaryotic microorganisms (protists). Most often, Legionellales have been isolated from amoebae; however, the culture-based sampling methods are taxonomically biased.