Effect of Colletia hystrix (Clos), a pioneer actinorhizal plant from the Chilean matorral, on the genetic and potential metabolic diversity of the soil bacterial community

Colletia hystrix are dominant shrubs in the sclerophyllous matorral, a natural ecosystem in the central valley of Chile affected by erosion, soil with low fertility and limiting nitrogen. The soil microbial communities associated to these pioneer plants have received little attention even though they may have an important role in the ability of these to colonize the nutrient-poor soils from these semi-arid ecosystems. T-RFLP profiles using 16S rDNA were used to compare the bacterial community structure from soil samples (enriched and unenriched) associated to C. hystrix and neighboring soil without plant cover (bulk soil). Additionally, the microbial communities from both habitats were compared at the metabolic profile level using the Biolog EcoPlate™ system. Our results showed that the bacterial community from samples of soil associated to these plants formed a separate cluster from samples derived from the neighboring soil. These data suggest that soil associated to C. hystrix is a different microhabitat to bulk soil. When an enrichment step was performed on the samples, the T-RFLP profiles obtained showed few T-RFs suggesting that only some species were recovered. The enriched samples exhibited a low similarity between them and are clearly separated from the unenriched samples. On the other hand, the comparison of the unenriched samples from both habitats based on sole-carbon-source utilization profiles was unable to differentiate the samples according to their habitat.