Abstract
This study is a comparative analysis of samples of archived (stored for over 70–90 years) and modern soils of two different genetic types–chernozem and sod-podzolic soils. We revealed a reduction in biodiversity of archived soils relative to their modern state. Particularly, long-term storage in the museum exerted a greater impact on the microbiomes of sod-podzolic soils, while chernozem samples better preserved the native community. Thus, the persistence of microbial DNA in soil is largely determined by the physico-chemical characteristics that differ across soil types. Chernozems create better conditions for the long-term DNA preservation than sod-podzolic soils. This results in supposedly higher levels of biodiversity conservation in the microbiomes of chernozem with preservation of major microbial taxa dominant in the modern (control) soil samples, which makes archived chernozems a promising object for paleosoil studies.
Highlights
Paleomicrobiology is a fast-developing area of research in the modern biological science
The analysis of qPCR data of 16 rRNA gene showed that the quantity of bacterial 16 S rRNA ribosomal operons per gram of archived sod-podzolic (ASp) soil was 1.5 order of magnitude less than that for ACh soil (Fig 2)
The study demonstrates that despite the air-drying and long-term storage, archived soils can retain specific microbial communities resembling that of their modern counterparts
Summary
Paleomicrobiology is a fast-developing area of research in the modern biological science. A large amount of data has been recently accumulated about the ancient microbiomes of different origin: bacterial communities of oral and dental pulps, bones, microbial complexes associated with coprolites [1, 2, 3]. Such studies are possible due to high levels of microbial DNA preservation in the environment: for example, microbial DNA, successfully extracted from permafrost samples, is up to 400,000–600,000 years old [4]. Soil is a large source of biological diversity and genetic information: 1 gram of soil can harbor up to 10 billion of different microorganisms, most of which (up to 90–99%) cannot be cultivated in the lab [5, 6, 7].
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