Altered microbial CAZyme families indicated dead biomass decomposition following afforestation

Afforestation can modify terrestrial carbon (C) pools, some of which are primarily fixed in the plant dead biomass and then incorporated into microbial biomass. Soil microorganisms exert a critical role C flow potentially influence balance through degradation Here, we compared sites along 45-year Robinia pseudoacacia (RP) afforestation chronosequence on Loess Plateau China. Subsequently, trends carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZyme) their responses to decomposition different origins were studied using metagenomics. The results show that soil CAZyme families, degrade plant- microbial-derived components, significantly increased after afforestation, with significant peak at 20-year site. dominant bacterial phyla (i.e., Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria) mineralized sources from components corresponding families. Moreover, abundance CAZymes involved plant-derived (e.g., cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin) contributed formation pools. In case encoding bacterial-derived (peptidoglycan) was larger than fungal-derived (chitin glucans) more associated metabolic activity (qCO2 Cmic: Corg ratio), indicating higher investment for turnover following afforestation. Overall, our study compares illustrate differential contributions accumulation confirms importance community derived