Autochthonous microbial community associated with pine needle forest litterfall influences its degradation under natural environmental conditions

Abstract

The slow natural degradation of chir pine (Pinus roxburghii) needle litterfall and its accumulation on forest floors have been attributed to its lignocellulosic complexities of the biomass. The present study offers a microbiological insight into the role of autochthonous microflora associated with pine needle litterfall in its natural degradation. The denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprinting indicated actinomycetes (Saccharomonospora sp., Glycomyces sp., Agrococcus sp., Leifsonia sp., Blastocatella sp., and Microbacterium sp.) as a dominant microbial community associated with pine needle litterfall with the absence of fungal decomposers. On exclusion of associated autochthonous microflora from pine litterfall resulted in colonization by decomposer fungi identified as Penicillium chrysogenum and Aspergillus sp., which otherwise failed to colonize the litterfall under natural conditions. The results, therefore, indicated that the autochthonous microbial community of pine needle litterfall (dominated by actinomycetes) obstructs the colonization of litter-degrading fungi and subsequently hinders the overall process of natural degradation of litterfall.

Hidden mycota of pine needles: Molecular signatures from PCR-DGGE and Ribosomal DNA phylogenetic characterization of novel phylotypes

“…Phylotypes 17 and G isolated from fresh and L type needles respectively cluster together with high support, and are fungi related and belong to Penicillium . The latter are common asexual fungi that have also been obtained from cultural studies in high frequency (Table 1) and similar findings have also been reported 9,43 . Phylotype P belongs to the order Hypocreales and could possibly be a Geosmithia species given their close phylogenetic affinity.…”

“…Mahajan et al . 9 have attempted to characterize microbial communities from Pinus roxburghii of the Himalayan subtropical region (India) based on PCR-DGGE using ITS-GC clamped primers but all PCR amplifications failed and no fungal taxa could be sequenced. Aneja et al .…”

Development and diversity of lactic acid producing bacteria and bifidobacteria in healthy full term Indian infants from Himachal Pradesh

“…Among Lactobacillus species, the predominant lactobacilli indicated closest homology to L. ruminis , L. salivarius and L. hayakitensis . L. ruminis and L. salivarius have been reported before in breast milk and stool samples of vaginally delivered infants [ 29 , 30 ]. Among the members of Streptococcaceae, 3 species viz.…”

“…Among bifidobacteria, B. breve has been reported as dominant bifidobacteria in both breast milk and infant faeces [ 22 , 25 , 30 ]. No effect on mode of delivery was observed on the dominance of B. breve [ 29 ]. Kharchenko et al [ 32 ] isolated B. animalis subsp.…”

Pine Needle Energy Potential in Conifer Forest of Western Himalayan

“…Many researchers have worked on harnessing pine for various applications. The influence of climate on the structural growth of pine trees has been studied by Sharma and Lekha (2013) and Mahajan et al (2016). Particular interest has also been paid to the knowledge of medicinal properties of pine trees for the treatment of various tropical disorders and its antioxidant characteristics (Parikh et al, 2005).…”