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Horizontal Gene Transfer in Soil and the Rhizosphere: Impact on Ecological Fitness of Bacteria

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Agriculturally Important Microbes for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

The ecological fitness of soil- and root-associated bacterial communities is a key element for soil fertility and plant health as well as plant stress tolerance. Genetic variability in bacterial populations is maintained through mutation and gene acquisition. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is accomplished by conjugation, transformation, and transduction both in vitro and under natural conditions. Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) play a significant role in gene dissemination in bacterial communities and increase their adaptability, survival, and ability to colonize different environmental niches. In this context, bacterial conjugative plasmids encoding resistance genes, degradative genes, and tolerance to stress conditions are of much significance. The biofilm mode of bacterial growth further enhances gene exchange and increase the fitness and competitiveness of bacteria. Microcosm studies reveal a number of factors influencing the HGT process in soil. Considering the importance of HGT, a better understanding of genetic processes in the rhizosphere will further help in effective exploitation of naturally engineered bacteria for sustainable agriculture.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped us to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Microbiology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, India

    Meenu Maheshwari, Mohammad Shavez Khan & Iqbal Ahmad

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Applied Science, Umm Al- Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

    Hussein H. Abulreesh & Iqbal Ahmad

  3. Natural Resources and Environmental Management, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA

    John Pichtel

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Correspondence to Iqbal Ahmad .

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  1. ICAR-Vivekananda Institute of Hill Agriculture, Almora, Uttarakhand, India

    Vijay Singh Meena

  2. ICAR-Vivekananda Institute of Hill Agriculture, Almora, Uttarakhand, India

    Pankaj Kumar Mishra

  3. ICAR-Vivekananda Institute of Hill Agriculture, Almora, Uttarakhand, India

    Jaideep Kumar Bisht

  4. ICAR-Vivekananda Institute of Hill Agriculture, Almora, Uttarakhand, India

    Arunava Pattanayak

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Maheshwari, M., Abulreesh, H.H., Khan, M.S., Ahmad, I., Pichtel, J. (2017). Horizontal Gene Transfer in Soil and the Rhizosphere: Impact on Ecological Fitness of Bacteria. In: Meena, V., Mishra, P., Bisht, J., Pattanayak, A. (eds) Agriculturally Important Microbes for Sustainable Agriculture . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5589-8_6

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