Active phoD-harboring bacteria are enriched by long-term organic fertilization

Abstract PhoD-harboring microorganisms are crucial for the regulation of soil phosphorus (P) cycling through the secretion of alkaline phosphomonoesterases and are also known to be sensitive to fertilizer inputs. However, the impacts of long-term mineral and organic fertilizer inputs on active phoD-harboring functional communities in soils remain largely unknown. In the present study, 18O-DNA-stable isotope probing coupled with high-throughput sequencing was utilized in order to characterize active phoD-harboring functional bacterial communities in soils subjected to long-term no-fertilizer (Control), mineral-only fertilizer (NPK), organic-only fertilizer (M), and the combination of mineral and organic fertilizer (NPKM) amendments. Total and active phoD gene abundance decreased in soils amended with long-term mineral fertilizer, but increased in soils under organic fertilizer amendment, compared with the non-fertilized soils. A total of 51 active phoD-harboring bacterial OTUs, mainly belonging to Actinobacteria, were identified in this study. Organically amended soils harbored a higher diversity of active bacterial community. In the active phoD-harboring functional community, Rhodococcus comprised approximately 99% of the total relative abundance in the unfertilized soil, whereas Nocardiopsis and Bacillus accounted for approximately 62% and 24%, respectively, in mineral-only fertilized soils. Active phoD-harboring communities were dominated by members of the genera Streptomyces (26–60%), Nocardia (5–9%) and Gordonia (23–41%) in all organically fertilized soils, including M and NPKM. Overall, these long-term fertilization regimes altered the abundance, richness and composition of the active phoD-harboring functional microbial community. This study provides novel insights into the responses of the active functional bacterial community that is responsible for soil P mineralization to differing long-term fertilization regimes.