Links Between Heathland Fungal Biomass Mineralization, Melanization, and Hydrophobicity

Microbial Ecology
Mathias LenaersFrancois Rineau

Abstract

Comprehending the decomposition process is crucial for our understanding of the mechanisms of carbon (C) sequestration in soils. The decomposition of plant biomass has been extensively studied. It revealed that extrinsic biomass properties that restrict its access to decomposers influence decomposition more than intrinsic ones that are only related to its chemical structure. Fungal biomass has been much less investigated, even though it contributes to a large extent to soil organic matter, and is characterized by specific biochemical properties. In this study, we investigated the extent to which decomposition of heathland fungal biomass was affected by its hydrophobicity (extrinsic property) and melanin content (intrinsic property). We hypothesized that, as for plant biomass, hydrophobicity would have a greater impact on decomposition than melanin content. Mineralization was determined as the mineralization of soil organic carbon (SOC) into CO2 by headspace GC/MS after inoculation by a heathland soil microbial community. Results show that decomposition was not affected by hydrophobicity, but was negatively correlated with melanin content. We argue that it may indicate that either melanin content is both an intrinsic and extrins...Continue Reading

References

May 22, 2001·Environmental Microbiology·E Z Ron, E Rosenberg
Feb 1, 2003·Environmental Microbiology·Theo H M SmitsChristoph Keel
Sep 15, 2006·Fungal Genetics and Biology : FG & B·Phil Kersten, Dan Cullen
Jul 1, 1984·Biotechnology and Bioengineering·R M Ray, J D Desai
Jul 4, 2009·Mycological Research·Henry Wai ChauVladimir Vujanovic
Oct 8, 2011·Nature·Michael W I SchmidtSusan E Trumbore

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Citations

Jan 5, 2019·Ecology Letters·Christopher W FernandezPeter G Kennedy
Mar 25, 2020·Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology·Helene C EisenmanCarolyn W McGrail
Aug 9, 2019·Microbial Ecology·Logan Gray, Gavin Kernaghan

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
PCR
electrophoresis

Software Mentioned

ImageJ
R

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