APPLYING ENVIRONMENTAL FILTERING TO COLLECT AND FUNCTIONALLY COMPARE MICROBIAL ASSEMBLAGES WITH DIFFERENT ECOLOGICAL TRAITS

The primary objective of this proposal is to determine how agriculturally-imposed selection pressures alter the composition and function of actively dispersing soil microbial pools. A secondary objective is to determine whether controlled manipulation of these pressures can facilitate cultivation of generalist microbial strains, which could allow for the production of more reliably effective microbial products for agriculture.These objectives will be achieved through three main Aims:Aim 1: Direct the microbial colonization of recipient soils by alternating environmental conditions after each community transfer event. Aim 1a. Alternating temperature Aim 1b. Alternating macronutrient concentrations Aim 1c. Alternating habitat typeAim 2: Assess the functional performance of selected microbial assemblages. Aim 2a. Habitat occupancy: biomass growth Aim 2b. Function: metabolic assays, respiration, and extracellular enzyme activity Aim 2c. Genetic differences: taxonomic comparison and genome projectionsAim 3: Determine whether filtering for particular functional subsets of a microbial community changes the cultivable pool of bacteria. Aim 3a. Contrast the composition of isolates from selected pools and initial soils using common media Aim 3b. Assess metabolic capacity of cultivable pool