T-RFLP analysis of soil bacterial structure from Cerrado within the Sete Cidades National Park, Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the structure of soil bacterial communities across a gradient of three different types of Cerrado within Sete Cidades National Park, northeast Brazil. We evaluated the preserved Cerrado sites across a gradient ranging from ‘campo graminoide’ (CG; open grassland), ‘Cerrado strictu sensu’ (CSS; savannah), and ‘Cerradao’ (CD; closed formation). Bacterial diversity, as estimated by T-RF richness and alpha and beta diversity showed different patterns across the gradient of the Cerrado. For the restriction enzyme Hha I and Msp I, the highest T-RF richness and beta diversity were found at CSS. The distribution and abundance of various fragments sizes varied between different sites. The non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis obtained with the restriction enzyme Hha I separated the sites according to bacterial community; whereas the analysis based on the restriction enzyme Msp I did not clearly separate the evaluated sites. The results show that bacterial structure does not follow the same pattern as found in the others regions with Cerrado vegetation.