A polyphasic approach to bacterial taxonomy attempts to integrate phylogenetic relationships with phenotypic marker analysis. This study describes the application of membrane fatty acids as a phenotypic marker for methylotrophs. Detailed phospholipid, ester-linked fatty acid (PLFA) profiles are reported for 17 methylotrophic eubacterial strains. These profiles included verification of double bo...

Grassland fire, as an important ecological factor, is quite influential in determining the structural and functional stability of ecosystem. In this work, the fire-induced changes on the vegetation and soil microbial community were studied in alpine meadow. Microbial community composition was assessed by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis, and functional diversity was determined by Biolog ...

Twenty-eight sediment samples collected from Osaka Bay, Japan, were analyzed for phospholipid ester-linked fatty acids (PLFA) to determine regional differences in microbial community structure of the bay. The abundance of three major groups of C(10) to C(19) PLFA (saturated, branched, and monounsaturated PLFA), which accounted for 84 to 97% of the total PLFA, indicated the predominance of proka...

The composition of the microbial community in the rhizosphere was investigated using three different techniques: direct soil–phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA), cfu–PLFA (using culturable bacteria only) and community-level physiological profiles (CLPP) using Biolog GN microtitre plates. All three techniques showed that the rhizosphere bacterial community differed from the bulk soil community, when ...

Phospholipid-derived fatty acids (PLFA) are widely used as chemotaxonomic markers in microbial ecology. In this paper we explore the use of PLFA as chemotaxonomic markers for phytoplankton species. The PLFA composition was determined for 23 species relevant to estuarine phytoplankton. The taxonomic groups investigated were Chlorophyceae, Trebouxiophyceae, Prasinophyceae, Bacillariophyceae, Dino...

To better understand how residue quality and seasonal conditions influence the flow of C from both root and straw residues into the soil microbial community, we followed the incorporation of C-labeled crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum) and ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) root and straw residues into the phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) of soil microbial biomass. After residue incorporation unde...

Polyphasic studies that used phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) in conjunction with community level physiological profiling (CLPP) or PCR-based molecular methods were analyzed in order to evaluate the power of each strategy to detect treatment effects on soil microbial community structure (MCS). We found no studies where CLPP or PCR-based methods differentiated treatments that were not als...

Microbial colonization of soil-incorporated, C-labeled, crimson clover and ryegrass straw residues was followed under western Oregon field conditions from late summer (September) to the following early summer (mid-June) by measuring the C content of phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) extracted from residues recovered from soil. Residue type influenced the rate of appearance of specific PLFA during ...

Microbial community dynamics associated with manure hot spots were studied by using a model system consisting of a gel-stabilized mixture of soil and manure, placed between layers of soil, during a 3-week incubation period. The microbial biomass, measured as the total amount of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA), had doubled within a 2-mm distance from the soil-manure interface after 3 days. Princ...

The effects of long-term heavy metal deposition on microbial community structure and the level of bacterial community tolerance were studied along two different gradients in Scandinavian coniferous forest soils. One was near the Harjavalta smelter in Finland, and one was at Ronnskar in Sweden. Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis revealed a gradual change in soil microbial communities along ...