Soils are among the most biodiverse habitats on earth and while the species composition of microbial communities can influence decomposition rates and pathways, the functional significance of many microbial species and phylogenetic groups remains unknown. If bacteria exhibit phylogenetic organization in their function, this could enable ecologically meaningful classification of bacterial clades. Here, we show non-random phylogenetic organization in the rates of relative carbon assimilation for both rapidly mineralized substrates (amino acids and glucose) assimilated by many microbial taxa and slowly mineralized substrates (lipids and cellulose) assimilated by relatively few microbial taxa. When mapped onto bacterial phylogeny using ancestral character estimation this phylogenetic organization enabled the identification of clades involved in the decomposition of specific soil organic matter substrates. Phylogenetic organization in substrate assimilation could provide a basis for predicting the functional attributes of uncharacterized microbial taxa and understanding the significance of microbial community composition for soil organic matter decomposition.

中文翻译：

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土壤细菌同化化学不同底物的系统发育组织

土壤是地球上生物多样性最丰富的栖息地之一，虽然微生物群落的物种组成可以影响分解速率和途径，但许多微生物物种和系统发育群的功能意义仍然未知。如果细菌在其功能中表现出系统发育组织，则可以对细菌进化枝进行具有生态意义的分类。在这里，我们展示了被许多微生物类群同化的快速矿化底物（氨基酸和葡萄糖）和被相对较少的微生物类群同化的缓慢矿化底物（脂质和纤维素）的相对碳同化速率的非随机系统发育组织。当使用祖先特征估计映射到细菌系统发育时，这种系统发育组织能够识别参与特定土壤有机质基质分解的进化枝。基质同化中的系统发育组织可以为预测未表征的微生物类群的功能属性和理解微生物群落组成对土壤有机质分解的意义提供基础。