Microbial community resilience capacity assessed by metagenomics and metatranscriptomics in Amazon forest and pasture soils

Abstract

The Amazon Basin is covered by the largest rainforest on the planet, which has been converted into areas designated for agriculture due to the growing world demand for food. Land use change alters its original physical, chemical and biological characteristics. Consequently, the soil microorganisms, which participate in essential processes for all terrestrial ecosystems, respond differently to these changes, in a way to alter its taxonomic and functional diversity. Anthropic land use is considered as one of the main sources of greenhouse gases emissions to the atmosphere and thus the study of the effects of these changes in the microbial groups that act within the cycles of these gases is very important. Among these, the biogeochemical cycle of methane stands out, considered directly related to the soil microbial community attributes. Different environmental factors affect the groups of microbial methane producers and consumers, with studies that indicate strong moisture influence on them. However, the effects of land use change and moisture on soils under different uses on the taxonomic and functional microbial diversity have been little explored in the literature, especially in tropical soils. In this context, the combined use of molecular techniques from the total soil DNA and RNA can bring new data about these impacts on it. Therefore, the aim of the research project is to determine the effect of land use change and moisture in soils under different uses on its microbiota, emphasizing the methane cycle, through large-scale sequencing and quantitative real-time PCR of the total soil DNA and RNA from areas of primary forest, secondary forest and pasture in the State of Pará, in the eastern Amazon.