Diversity of Free-Living Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria in the Badlands of South Dakota Bibha Dahal South Dakota State University
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South Dakota State University Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange Theses and Dissertations 2016 Diversity of Free-living Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria in the Badlands of South Dakota Bibha Dahal South Dakota State University Follow this and additional works at: http://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd Part of the Bacteriology Commons, and the Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Commons Recommended Citation Dahal, Bibha, "Diversity of Free-living Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria in the Badlands of South Dakota" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 688. http://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/688 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DIVERSITY OF FREE-LIVING NITROGEN FIXING BACTERIA IN THE BADLANDS OF SOUTH DAKOTA BY BIBHA DAHAL A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science Major in Biological Sciences Specialization in Microbiology South Dakota State University 2016 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Always aim for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”.- W. Clement Stone I would like to express my profuse gratitude and heartfelt appreciation to my advisor Dr. Volker Brӧzel for providing me a rewarding place to foster my career as a scientist. I am thankful for his implicit encouragement, guidance, and support throughout my research. This research would not be successful without his guidance and inspiration. I would like to thank all my POS Committee for supporting me in various stages of my research and encouraging me to achieve my goal swiftly. My sincere thanks goes to my committee members Dr. Lora Perkins and Dr. Senthil Subramanian for their assistance, support, and direction when I needed. I would like to thank all the faculties and staffs of Department of Biology and Microbiology who have directly or indirectly supported me to achieve this goal. I am thankful to my lab mate Gitanjali Nanda Kafle and my friend Tyrel Deutscher who have assisted me in my research in various ways. The conversations we had will remain in my memories. I would like to acknowledge the funding source South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station for its financial support. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my husband Nirmal Paudel for his encouragement and moral support throughout my study period. My acknowledgement goes to my sister Subha Dahal and my parents who have been very supportive and encouraging. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………………………….viii LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………….…..xi LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………...xiv ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………….xv Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 Biological Nitrogen Fixation ..................................................................... 2 1.1.2 Nitrogen cycle ............................................................................................ 2 1.2 The Nitrogenase enzyme .............................................................................. 4 1.2.1. The Molybdenum containing nitrogenase ................................................. 4 1.2.2. The Vanadium nitrogenase ....................................................................... 8 1.2.3. The Iron-only nitrogenase………………………………………………10 1.2.4. Oxygen insensitive Streptomyces thermoautotrophicus nitrogenase ...... 11 1.3 Diversity of Nitrogen fixing bacteria ......................................................... 12 1.3.1. Life styles of nitrogen fixers ................................................................... 13 1.3.1.1. Symbiotic association .......................................................................... 13 1.3.1.2. Associative nitrogen fixing bacteria .................................................... 14 1.3.1.3. Free-living nitrogen fixers .................................................................... 14 v 1.3.2. Origins and evolution of nitrogenases .................................................... 15 1.4. N2 fixation in arid lands ............................................................................ 17 1.5. Methods for Evaluating of Nitrogen Fixation ........................................... 18 1.5.1. Culture Dependent Methods ................................................................... 18 1.5.2. Culture Independent Methods ................................................................. 19 1.5.2.1. The 16S rRNA gene ............................................................................. 20 1.5.2.2. The nifH gene to study the diversity of diazotrophs ............................ 22 1.5.2.3. Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) ............................. 24 1.5.3. The Acetylene Reduction Assay ............................................................. 25 15 1.5.4. Detecting nitrogen incorporation using stable isotope N2 .................... 26 1.6. Aim of Study ............................................................................................. 28 Chapter 2: Diversity of free-living nitrogen fixing bacteria in the Badlands of South Dakota………………………………………………………………….30 2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 30 2.2. Materials and Methods .............................................................................. 33 2.2.1. Study Area ............................................................................................... 33 2.2.2. Sampling.................................................................................................. 33 2.2.3. Isolation of free-living putative diazotrophs from soil. ........................... 35 2.2.4. DNA Extraction and PCR Amplification of 16S rRNA and nifH from pure cultures ...................................................................................................... 36 vi 2.2.5. DNA Extraction and PCR Amplification of nifH gene from soil samples and DGGE analysis: .......................................................................................... 38 2.2.6. Determination of nifH sequences in soil samples ................................... 38 2.2.7. PCR amplification of Cyanobacterial 16S rRNA genes from soil samples ................................................................................................................. 39 2.2.8. Acetylene Reduction Assay…………………………………………..39 15 2.2.9. Incorporation of N2 isotope in pure cultures ........................................ 40 2.2.10. Confirming nitrogen fixation in an ammonia free atmosphere ............. 40 2.2.11 Determination of 16S rRNA gene sequence of putative Streptomyces isolates……………........................................................................................... 41 2.3. Results ....................................................................................................... 42 2.3.1 Diversity of free-living putative nitrogen fixing bacteria ....................... 42 2.3.2 The nifH gene amplification and growth in liquid NFM with clinoptilolite…………………………………………………………………...45 2.3.3 V1-9 region 16S rRNA gene amplification of isolates allocated to Streptomyces ..................................................................................................... 47 2.3.4. DGGE analysis of microbial community and sequencing of cloned DNA ................................................................................................................. 49 2.3.5. Nitrogen fixation by bacterial isolates……………………………...…..49 2.4. Discussion ............................................................................................... 51 Chapter 3: Fungal isolates on Nitrogen Free Medium…...…………………...55 vii 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………….55 3.2 Materials and Methods……………………………………………………57 3.2.1. Isolation of microbial communities from rhizosphere, root, and stem...57 3.2.2. DNA Extraction and PCR Amplification of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, 16S rRNA gene and nifH gene…………………………………58 3.2.3. Culture of fungi like isolates on various media………...…….………..59 3.2.4. Isolation of bacterial endophytes………………………………………60 3.2.5. Microscopy…………………………………………………………….60 15 3.2.6. Incorporation of N2 isotope in pure cultures…………………………60 3.3. Results…………………………………………………………………...61 3.4. Discussion……………………………………………………………….64 Chapter 4: Conclusions and Question for future study………………………67 4.1.Conclusion………………………………………………………………..67 4.2.Question for future study…………………………………………………68 References…………………………………………………………………….70 Appendix……………………………………………………………………...99 viii ABBREVIATIONS α: Alpha β: Beta °C: Degrees Celsius µ: Micro ADP: Adenosine Di-Phosphate ARA: Acetylene Reduction Assay ATP: Adenosine Tri- Phosphate BLAST: Basic Local Alignment Search Tool BNF: Biological Nitrogen Fixation bp: base pair BSC: Biological Soil Crust δ: Delta Da: Dalton DGGE: Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis DNA: Deoxyribonucleic acid dNTP: Deoxyribonucleic triphosphate EPR: Electron paramagnetic resonance ix EXAFS: Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure HGT: Horizontal Gene Transfer ITS: Internal Transcribed Spacer kDa: Kilo Dalton