AEM Accepts, published online ahead of print on 10 November 2006

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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.01536-06
Copyright (c) 2006, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Community structure of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria under long-term application of mineral fertilizer and organic manure in a sandy loam soil

Haiyan Chu, Takeshi Fujii^*, Sho Morimoto, Xiangui Lin, Kazuyuki Yagi, Junli Hu, and Jiabao Zhang

Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, East Beijing Road 71, Nanjing 210008, China, National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, Kannondai 3-1-3, Tsukuba 305-8604, Japan

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: ftakeshi{at}affrc.go.jp,

The effects of mineral fertilizer (NPK) and organic manure on the community structure of soil ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) was investigated in a long-term (16 years) fertilizer experiment. The experiment included seven treatments: organic manure, half-organic manure N plus half-fertilizer N, fertilizer NPK, fertilizer NP, fertilizer NK, fertilizer PK and the control (without fertilization). N fertilization greatly increased soil nitrification potential, and mineral N fertilizer had a greater impact than organic manure, while N-deficiency treatment (PK) had no significant effect. AOB community structure was analyzed by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of the amoA gene, which encodes the subunit of ammonia monooxygenase. DGGE profiles showed that AOB community was more diverse in N-fertilized treatments than those in the PK treatment and the control, while one dominant band observed in the control, could not detected in all fertilized treatments. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the DGGE bands derived from N-fertilized treatments, belonged to Nitrosospira cluster 3, indicating that N fertilization resulted in the dominance of Nitrosospira cluster 3 in soil. These results demonstrate that long-term application of N fertilizers could result in the increased soil nitrification potential, and the AOB community shifts in soil. Our results also indicated the different effects of mineral fertilizer N vs. organic manure N, the effects of P and K on soil AOB community, as well as the importance of balanced fertilization of N, P and K in promoting nitrification functions in arable soils.

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