Interactions of bacteria and fungi on decomposing litter: differential extracellular enzyme activities
dc.contributor.author
dc.date.accessioned
2013-04-08T12:01:41Z
dc.date.available
2013-04-08T12:01:41Z
dc.date.issued
2006
dc.identifier.issn
0012-9658
dc.identifier.uri
dc.description.abstract
Fungi and bacteria are key agents in plant litter decomposition in freshwater ecosystems. However, the specific roles of these two groups and their interactions during the decomposition process are unclear. We compared the growth and patterns of degradative
enzymes expressed by communities of bacteria and fungi grown separately and in coexistence on Phragmites leaves. The two groups displayed both synergistic and antagonistic interactions. Bacteria grew better together with fungi than alone. In addition, there was a negative effect of bacteria on fungi, which appeared to be caused by suppression of fungal growth and biomass accrual rather than specifically affecting enzyme activity. Fungi growing alone had a high capacity for the decomposition of plant polymers such as lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose. In contrast, enzyme activities were in general low when bacteria grew alone, and the activity of key enzymes in the degradation of lignin and cellulose (phenol oxidase and cellobiohydrolase) was undetectable in the bacteria-only treatment. Still, biomass-specific activities of most enzymes were higher in bacteria than in fungi. The low total activity and growth of bacteria in the absence of fungi in spite of apparent high enzymatic efficiency during the degradation of many substrates suggest that fungi provide the bacteria with resources that the bacteria were not able to acquire on their own, most probably intermediate decomposition products released by fungi that could be used by bacteria
dc.format.mimetype
application/pdf
dc.language.iso
eng
dc.publisher
Ecological Society of America (ESA)
dc.relation.ispartof
© Ecology, 2006, vol. 87, núm. 10, p. 2559-2569
dc.relation.ispartofseries
Articles publicats (D-CCAA)
dc.rights
Tots els drets reservats. Copyright by the Ecological Society of America
dc.subject
dc.title
Interactions of bacteria and fungi on decomposing litter: differential extracellular enzyme activities
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.rights.accessRights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.embargo.terms
Cap
dc.type.version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.identifier.idgrec
004676