Resilience of Soil Microbial Communities to Metals and Additional Stressors: DNA-Based Approaches for Assessing “Stress-on-Stress” Responses

Azarbad, Hamed; Van Gestel, Cornelis A. M.; Niklińska, Maria; Laskowski, Ryszard; Röling, Wilfred F. M.; Van Straalen, Nico M.

doi:10.3390/ijms17060933

Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Edit a Special Issue

Article Menu

...

Open AccessReview

Resilience of Soil Microbial Communities to Metals and Additional Stressors: DNA-Based Approaches for Assessing “Stress-on-Stress” Responses

Hamed Azarbad

^1,2,3,*,

Cornelis A. M. Van Gestel

³,

²,

²,

⁴ and

Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique-Institut Armand-Frappier, 531 Boulevard des Prairies, Laval, H7V 1B7 QC, Canada

Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Krakow, Poland

Department of Ecological Science, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

⁴

Department of Molecular Cell Physiology, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editor: Patrick C. Y. Woo

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2016, 17(6), 933; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms17060933

Received: 13 March 2016 / Revised: 17 May 2016 / Accepted: 6 June 2016 / Published: 14 June 2016

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Genomics and Metabolomics)

View Full-Text Download PDF

Browse Figures

Citation Export

Abstract

Many microbial ecology studies have demonstrated profound changes in community composition caused by environmental pollution, as well as adaptation processes allowing survival of microbes in polluted ecosystems. Soil microbial communities in polluted areas with a long-term history of contamination have been shown to maintain their function by developing metal-tolerance mechanisms. In the present work, we review recent experiments, with specific emphasis on studies that have been conducted in polluted areas with a long-term history of contamination that also applied DNA-based approaches. We evaluate how the “costs” of adaptation to metals affect the responses of metal-tolerant communities to other stress factors (“stress-on-stress”). We discuss recent studies on the stability of microbial communities, in terms of resistance and resilience to additional stressors, focusing on metal pollution as the initial stress, and discuss possible factors influencing the functional and structural stability of microbial communities towards secondary stressors. There is increasing evidence that the history of environmental conditions and disturbance regimes play central roles in responses of microbial communities towards secondary stressors. View Full-Text

Keywords: resilience; metal pollution; microbial communities; secondary stressors; resistance; microbial stability

▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Azarbad, H.; Van Gestel, C.A.M.; Niklińska, M.; Laskowski, R.; Röling, W.F.M.; Van Straalen, N.M. Resilience of Soil Microbial Communities to Metals and Additional Stressors: DNA-Based Approaches for Assessing “Stress-on-Stress” Responses. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2016, 17, 933. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms17060933

AMA Style

Azarbad H, Van Gestel CAM, Niklińska M, Laskowski R, Röling WFM, Van Straalen NM. Resilience of Soil Microbial Communities to Metals and Additional Stressors: DNA-Based Approaches for Assessing “Stress-on-Stress” Responses. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2016; 17(6):933. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms17060933

Chicago/Turabian Style

Azarbad, Hamed, Cornelis A.M. Van Gestel, Maria Niklińska, Ryszard Laskowski, Wilfred F.M. Röling, and Nico M. Van Straalen. 2016. "Resilience of Soil Microbial Communities to Metals and Additional Stressors: DNA-Based Approaches for Assessing “Stress-on-Stress” Responses" International Journal of Molecular Sciences 17, no. 6: 933. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms17060933

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

Resilience of Soil Microbial Communities to Metals and Additional Stressors: DNA-Based Approaches for Assessing “Stress-on-Stress” Responses

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI