Effect of methamidophos on soil fungi community in microcosms by plate count,DGGE and clone library analysis

Methamidophos was widely used a pesticide in northern China. The potential influences of methamidophos on soil fungal community in black soil were assessed by plate count, 28S rDNA-PCR-DGGE, and clone library analysis. Three methamidophos levels （50, 150, and 250 mg/kg） were tested in soil microcosms. Results from plate count during a 60-d microcosm experiment showed that high concentrations of methamidophos （250 mg/kg） could significantly stimulate fungal populations. DGGE （denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis） fingerprinting patterns showed a significant difference between the responses of culturable and total fungi communities under the stress of methamidophos. Shannon diversity indices calculated from DGGE profiles indicated that culturable fungi in all microcosms with methamidophos treatment increased after 1 week of incubation. However, the diversity indices of total fungi decreased in the first week, as compared to the stimulation of culturable fungi. At the 8th week, however, all the microcosms treated by methamidophos were similar to the control microcosms in community structure as suggested by the Shannon diversity indices for both culturable and total fungi. In contrast, after 1 week the fungal structure of culturable and unculturable both were disturbed to different extent under the stresses of methamidophos by clustering analysis. Clone sequencing analysis indicated the stimulation of pathogenic and unculturable fungal populations by methamidophos treatment, suggetsing potential risks of plant disease outbreak.

Molecular diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi at a large-scale antimony mining area in southern China

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi （AMF） have great potential for assisting heavy metal hyperaccumulators in the remediation of contaminated soils. However, little information is available about the community composition of AMF under natural conditions in soils contaminated by antimony （Sb）. The objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics of AMF molecular diversity, and to explore the effects of Sb content and soil properties on the AMF community structure in an Sb mining area. Four Sb mine spoils and one adjacent reference area were selected from around the Xikuangshan mine in southern China. The association of AMF molecular diversity and community composition with the rhizosphere soils of the dominant plant species was studied by Polymerase Chain Reaction-Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis （PCR-DGGE）. Results from all five studied sites showed that the diversity of AMF decreased with increasing Sb concentration. Principal component analysis （PC_A） indicated that the AMF community structure was markedly different among these groups. Further redundancy analysis （RDA） showed that Sb contamination was the dominating factor influencing the AMF community structure in the Sb mine area. However, the multivariate analysis showed that, apart from the soil Sb content, extractable nitrogen content and organic matter content also attributed to AMF sequence distribution type. Some AMF sequences were only found in the highly contaminated area and these might be ideal candidates for improving phytoremediation efficiency in Sb mining regions. Gene sequencing analysis revealed that most species were affiliated with Gloraus, suggesting that Glomus was the dominant AMF genus in the studied Sb mining area.