Ester Linked Fatty Acid (ELFA) method should be used with caution for interpretating soil microbial communities and their relationships with environmental variables in forest soils.

As an alternative for phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis, a simpler ester linked fatty acid (ELFA) analysis has been developed to characterize soil microbial communities. However, few studies have compared the two methods in forest soils where the contribution of nonmicrobial sources may be lar...

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Autores principales:	Wenjuan Yu, Huanhuan Gao, Hongzhang Kang
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/6e67950ea44243ce9f8e2cb0cb7d5c23
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:6e67950ea44243ce9f8e2cb0cb7d5c232021-11-25T06:19:15ZEster Linked Fatty Acid (ELFA) method should be used with caution for interpretating soil microbial communities and their relationships with environmental variables in forest soils.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0251501https://doaj.org/article/6e67950ea44243ce9f8e2cb0cb7d5c232021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251501https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203As an alternative for phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis, a simpler ester linked fatty acid (ELFA) analysis has been developed to characterize soil microbial communities. However, few studies have compared the two methods in forest soils where the contribution of nonmicrobial sources may be larger than that of microbial sources. Moreover, it remains unclear whether the two methods yield similar relationships of microbial biomass and composition with environmental variables. Here, we compared PLFA and ELFA methods with respect to microbial biomass and composition and their relationships with environmental variables in six oriental oak (Quercus variabilis) forest sites along a 1500-km latitudinal gradient in East China. We found that both methods had a low sample-to-sample variability and successfully separated overall community composition of sites. However, total, bacterial, and fungal biomass, the fungal-to-bacterial ratio, and the gram-positive to gram-negative bacteria ratio were not significantly or strongly correlated between the two methods. The relationships of these microbial properties with environmental variables (pH, precipitation, and clay) greatly differed between the two methods. Our study indicates that despite its simplicity, the ELFA method may not be as feasible as the PLFA method for investigating microbial biomass and composition and for identifying their dominant environmental drivers, at least in forest soils.Wenjuan YuHuanhuan GaoHongzhang KangPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 5, p e0251501 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Wenjuan Yu Huanhuan Gao Hongzhang Kang Ester Linked Fatty Acid (ELFA) method should be used with caution for interpretating soil microbial communities and their relationships with environmental variables in forest soils.
description	As an alternative for phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis, a simpler ester linked fatty acid (ELFA) analysis has been developed to characterize soil microbial communities. However, few studies have compared the two methods in forest soils where the contribution of nonmicrobial sources may be larger than that of microbial sources. Moreover, it remains unclear whether the two methods yield similar relationships of microbial biomass and composition with environmental variables. Here, we compared PLFA and ELFA methods with respect to microbial biomass and composition and their relationships with environmental variables in six oriental oak (Quercus variabilis) forest sites along a 1500-km latitudinal gradient in East China. We found that both methods had a low sample-to-sample variability and successfully separated overall community composition of sites. However, total, bacterial, and fungal biomass, the fungal-to-bacterial ratio, and the gram-positive to gram-negative bacteria ratio were not significantly or strongly correlated between the two methods. The relationships of these microbial properties with environmental variables (pH, precipitation, and clay) greatly differed between the two methods. Our study indicates that despite its simplicity, the ELFA method may not be as feasible as the PLFA method for investigating microbial biomass and composition and for identifying their dominant environmental drivers, at least in forest soils.
format	article
author	Wenjuan Yu Huanhuan Gao Hongzhang Kang
author_facet	Wenjuan Yu Huanhuan Gao Hongzhang Kang
author_sort	Wenjuan Yu
title	Ester Linked Fatty Acid (ELFA) method should be used with caution for interpretating soil microbial communities and their relationships with environmental variables in forest soils.
title_short	Ester Linked Fatty Acid (ELFA) method should be used with caution for interpretating soil microbial communities and their relationships with environmental variables in forest soils.
title_full	Ester Linked Fatty Acid (ELFA) method should be used with caution for interpretating soil microbial communities and their relationships with environmental variables in forest soils.
title_fullStr	Ester Linked Fatty Acid (ELFA) method should be used with caution for interpretating soil microbial communities and their relationships with environmental variables in forest soils.
title_full_unstemmed	Ester Linked Fatty Acid (ELFA) method should be used with caution for interpretating soil microbial communities and their relationships with environmental variables in forest soils.
title_sort	ester linked fatty acid (elfa) method should be used with caution for interpretating soil microbial communities and their relationships with environmental variables in forest soils.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/6e67950ea44243ce9f8e2cb0cb7d5c23
work_keys_str_mv	AT wenjuanyu esterlinkedfattyacidelfamethodshouldbeusedwithcautionforinterpretatingsoilmicrobialcommunitiesandtheirrelationshipswithenvironmentalvariablesinforestsoils AT huanhuangao esterlinkedfattyacidelfamethodshouldbeusedwithcautionforinterpretatingsoilmicrobialcommunitiesandtheirrelationshipswithenvironmentalvariablesinforestsoils AT hongzhangkang esterlinkedfattyacidelfamethodshouldbeusedwithcautionforinterpretatingsoilmicrobialcommunitiesandtheirrelationshipswithenvironmentalvariablesinforestsoils
_version_	1718413929795813376

Ester Linked Fatty Acid (ELFA) method should be used with caution for interpretating soil microbial communities and their relationships with environmental variables in forest soils.

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