Integrated metagenomics and metatranscriptomics analyses of root-associated soil from transgenic switchgrass

Archana Chauhan; Abby Smartt; Jun Wang; Sagar Utturkar; Ashley Frank; Meng Bi; Jiang Liu; Daniel Williams; Tingting Xu; Melanie Eldridge; Andres Arreaza; Alexandra Rogers; Hector Castro Gonzalez; Alice C Layton; Holly L Baxter; Mitra Mazarei; Jennifer M DeBruyn; C Neal Stewart Jr; Steven D Brown; Loren J Hauser; Gary S Sayler

doi:10.1128/genomeA.00777-14

Integrated metagenomics and metatranscriptomics analyses of root-associated soil from transgenic switchgrass

Genome Announc. 2014 Aug 14;2(4):e00777-14. doi: 10.1128/genomeA.00777-14.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ achauha1@utk.edu sayler@utk.edu.
² Graduate School of Genome Science and Technology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
³ Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
⁴ The Center for Environmental Biotechnology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
⁶ Department of Biosystems Engineering & Soil Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.

Abstract

The benefits of using transgenic switchgrass with decreased levels of caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase (COMT) as biomass feedstock have been clearly demonstrated. However, its effect on the soil microbial community has not been assessed. Here we report metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses of root-associated soil from COMT switchgrass compared with nontransgenic counterparts.