[Soil microbial ecological process and microbial functional gene diversity]

Abstract

Soil microbes in terrestrial ecosystem carry out a series of important ecological functions, such as geo-chemical cycling of elements, degradation of pollutants, and buffering to the acute changes of environment, etc. Soil microbial ecological function has a close relation with soil function, and the changes in the structure and composition of soil microbial populations can directly affect the realization of soil function. Through their produced enzymes, soil microbes take part in a series of metabolic activities, and the functional genes of coded enzymes are the functional markers of microbes. In recent ten years, molecular ecology focusing on the functional gene diversity has been developed rapidly, which gives us a new cut-in point to understand soil microbial ecological function from the point of functional gene. This paper reviewed the research advances in the functional gene diversity correlated to soil microbial ecological function, with the perspectives in this field discussed.