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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2006, p. 1019-1026, Vol. 72, No. 2
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.72.2.1019-1026.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Nitrous Oxide Reductase Genes (nosZ) of Denitrifying Microbial Populations in Soil and the Earthworm Gut Are Phylogenetically Similar{dagger}

Marcus A. Horn,* Harold L. Drake, and Andreas Schramm{ddagger}

Department of Ecological Microbiology, University of Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany

Received 15 September 2005/ Accepted 8 November 2005

Earthworms emit nitrous oxide (N2O) and dinitrogen (N2). It has been hypothesized that the in situ conditions of the earthworm gut activates ingested soil denitrifiers during gut passage and leads to these in vivo emissions (M. A. Horn, A. Schramm, and H. L. Drake, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69:1662-1669, 2003). This hypothesis implies that the denitrifiers in the earthworm gut are not endemic to the gut but rather are regular members of the soil denitrifier population. To test this hypothesis, the denitrifier populations of gut and soil from three different sites were comparatively assessed by sequence analysis of nosZ, the gene for the terminal enzyme in denitrification, N2O reductase. A total of 182 and 180 nosZ sequences were retrieved from gut and soil, respectively; coverage of gene libraries was 79 to 100%. Many of the nosZ sequences were heretofore unknown, clustered with known soil-derived sequences, or were related to N2O reductases of the genera Bradyrhizobium, Brucella, Dechloromonas, Flavobacterium, Pseudomonas, Ralstonia, and Sinorhizobium. Although the numbers of estimators for genotype richness of sequence data from the gut were higher than those of soil, only one gut-derived nosZ sequence did not group phylogenetically with any of the soil-derived nosZ sequences. Thus, the phylogenies of nosZ from gut and soil were not dissimilar, indicating that gut denitrifiers are soil derived.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Ecological Microbiology, University of Bayreuth, Dr.-Hans-Frisch-Strasse 1-3, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany. Phone: (49) (0)921-555 642. Fax: (49) (0)921-555 793. E-mail: marcus.horn{at}uni-bayreuth.de.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

{ddagger} Present address: Department of Microbiology, University of Aarhus, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2006, p. 1019-1026, Vol. 72, No. 2
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.72.2.1019-1026.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Wust, P. K., Horn, M. A., Henderson, G., Janssen, P. H., Rehm, B. H. A., Drake, H. L. (2009). Gut-Associated Denitrification and In Vivo Emission of Nitrous Oxide by the Earthworm Families Megascolecidae and Lumbricidae in New Zealand. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75: 3430-3436 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Wust, P. K., Horn, M. A., Drake, H. L. (2009). In Situ Hydrogen and Nitrous Oxide as Indicators of Concomitant Fermentation and Denitrification in the Alimentary Canal of the Earthworm Lumbricus terrestris. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75: 1852-1859 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Beman, J. M., Francis, C. A. (2006). Diversity of Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea and Bacteria in the Sediments of a Hypernutrified Subtropical Estuary: Bahia del Tobari, Mexico. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72: 7767-7777 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Henry, S., Bru, D., Stres, B., Hallet, S., Philippot, L. (2006). Quantitative Detection of the nosZ Gene, Encoding Nitrous Oxide Reductase, and Comparison of the Abundances of 16S rRNA, narG, nirK, and nosZ Genes in Soils. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72: 5181-5189 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Horn, M. A., Mertel, R., Gehre, M., Kastner, M., Drake, H. L. (2006). In Vivo Emission of Dinitrogen by Earthworms via Denitrifying Bacteria in the Gut. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72: 1013-1018 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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