Two chemical methods for characterization of micro organisms were compared: phospholipid ester-linked fatty acid (PLFA) analysis by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and intact phospholipid pro®ling (IPP) using liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization/mass spectrometry. Both methods were tested on ®ve reference pseudomonad strains: Pseudomonas putida mt-2, Pseudomonas putida F1, Burkho...

The effects of heavy-metal-containing sewage sludge on the soil microbial community were studied in two agricultural soils of different textures, which had been contaminated separately with three predominantly single metals (Cu, Zn, and Ni) at two different levels more than 20 years ago. We compared three community-based microbiological measurements, namely, phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analy...

Agricultural soils are typically fumigated to provide effective control of nematodes, soilborne pathogens, and weeds in preparation for planting of high-value cash crops. The ability of soil microbial communities to recover after treatment with fumigants was examined using culture-dependent (Biolog) and culture-independent (phospholipid fatty acid [PLFA] analysis and denaturing gradient gel ele...

The effects of long-term reforestation on soil microbial communities and biomass are poorly understood. This study was conducted on two coniferous plantations: Cunninghamia konishii Hayata, planted 40 years ago (CONIF-40), and Calocedrus formosana (Florin) Florin, planted 80 years ago (CONIF-80). An adjacent natural broadleaf forest (BROAD-Nat) was used as a control. We determined microbial bio...

Stable carbon isotopes can provide insight into carbon cycling pathways in natural environments. We examined carbon isotope fractionations associated with a hyperthermophilic fermentative bacterium, Thermotoga maritima, and a thermophilic chemolithoautotrophic bacterium Persephonella marina. In T. maritima, phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) are slightly enriched in 13C relative to biomass (epsilo...

Chemoautotrophy has been little studied in typical coastal marine sediments, but may be an important component of carbon recycling as intense anaerobic mineralization processes in these sediments lead to accumulation of high amounts of reduced compounds, such as sulfides and ammonium. We studied chemoautotrophy by measuring dark-fixation of 13C-bicarbonate into phospholipid derived fatty acid (...

Soil microbial communities are very sensitive to changes in land use and are often used as indicators of soil fertility. We evaluated the microbial communities in the soils of four types of vegetation (cropland (CP), natural grassland (NG), broadleaf forest (BF) and coniferous forest (CF)) at depths of 0–10 and 10–20 cm on the Loess Plateau in China using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profilin...

Sole carbon source utilization (SCSU) patterns and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiles were compared with respect to their potential to characterize root-inhabiting microbial communities of hydroponically grown crops. Sweet pepper (Capsicum annum cv. Evident), lettuce (Lactuca sativa cv. Grand Rapids), and four different cultivars of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cvs. Gitana, Armada, Arom...

Soil-based wastewater treatment systems, or leachfields, rely on microbial processes for improving the quality of wastewater before it reaches the groundwater. These processes are affected by physicochemical system properties, such as O2 availability, and disturbances, such as the presence of antimicrobial compounds in wastewater. We examined the microbial community structure of leachfield meso...