Antibiotic residues in soils can lead to serious health risk and ecological hazards. In this study, the effects of penicillin and neomycin, two antibiotics widely used in animal production, were investigated on soil bacterial communities. Changes in the community structure were monitored using three 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) polymerase chain reaction-based approaches, including denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), amplified rDNA restriction analysis (ARDRA), and terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis. The prominent DGGE bands were excised from gels and sequenced, and the data indicated the prevalence of Gammaproteobacteria in the soils. The total soil bacterial community, including uncultured bacteria, exhibited a higher diversity than that of cultured bacteria. Some microbial strains were capable of surviving and even subsisting on penicillin or neomycin. We also observed toxic effects of the antibiotics on the indigenous soil bacterial communities since some genotypes disappeared after the treatments (e.g., Pseudomonas sp., Stenotrophomonas sp., Salinimonas, and uncultured Acinetobacter sp.). The implications of these findings are that the functions of soil bacterial communities may be negatively affected if key microbial community members are lost.

The microbial communities under irrigated rice cropping with different fertilizer treatments, including control (CK), PK, NK, NP, NPK fertilization, were investigated using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profile method. The results of this study revealed that the fertilizer practice had an impact on the community structure of specific microbial groups. The principal components analysis (PCA) showed that proportion of the actinomycete PLFAs (10Me 18:0 and 10Me 16:0) were the lowest in the PK treatment and the highest in the NPK treatment, which means that soil nitrogen status affected the diversity of actinomycetes, whereas nitrogen cycling was related to the actinomycets. Under CK treatment, the ratio of Gram-positive to Gram-negative bacteria was lower compared with that in fertilizer addition treatments, indicating that fertilizer application stimulated Gram-positive bacterial population in paddy soil. The fatty acid 18:2ω6,9, which is considered to be predominantly of fungal origin, was at low level in all the treatments. The ratio of cy 19:0 to 18:1ω7, which has been proposed as an indicator of stress conditions, decreased in PK treatment. Changes of soil microbial community under different fertilizer treatments of paddy soil were detected in this study; however, the causes that lead to changes in the microbial community still needs further study.

The microbial community structure and enzyme activities of seven paddy soils with different Cu concentrations were investigated in the vicinity of a Cu smelter in Fuyang County, Zhejiang Province in Southeast China. The microbial community structure was analyzed using the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) and multiplex-terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (M-TRFLP) techniques. There was no clear dose-response relationship between Cu pollution and soil enzyme activity except for urease. Both PLFA and M-TRFLP methods showed that Cu contamination had a large effect on the soil microbial community structure. PLFA indicators of Gram-positive bacteria (16:0i, 15:0i) and fungi (18:2w6,9) relatively decreased with increasing Cu concentration, whereas indicators of Gram-negative bacteria (19:0cy, 16:1w7) increased. The M-TRFLP results suggested that there was a dose-dependent response between Cu pollution and bacterial community or fungal community. The fungal community was more sensitive to Cu pollution than the bacterial community. There were no significant differences in archaeal community structure between the different Cu pollution plots and archaea might be more tolerant to Cu pollution than both bacteria and fungi.