Microbial diversity can refer to almost anything. From the microbiome of your body, a volcano, or even the soil that makes up our world. The average person may think they understand the components to the soil around us however it is thought that only 1-5% of bacteria found in soil have been identified and characterized by humans, with soil being one of the most biologically diverse habitats on earth. Since there is such an abundance of bacterial diversity, I'm going to touch on just three of the groups to explain just how vastly different they really are.
Zooming out, it is important when looking at life to observe the conditions that affect it. In soil climate, vegetation, pH, moisture, and the organic matter presence are all factors that limit what bacteria can exist. Proteobacteria are one of the most prominent and diverse groups of bacteria found in soil and are very involved in nutrient cycling. One example would be pseudomonas that are capable of breaking down pollutants like hydrocarbons or heavy metals. Another group of bacteria that could be found in our soil is Actinobacteria. Actinobacteria is a high GC concentrated organism meaning that a large portion of actinobacteria’s DNA consists of guanine and cytosine. This may seem insignificant but interestingly enough high guanine and cytosine content allows for a broader range of temperatures at which they can thrive, specifically higher temperatures. Higher GC content also allows for greater gene density, earlier replication, and higher recombination. Higher recombination then allows for increased genetic diversity in offspring and therefore increased odds of success. Actinobacteria also take part in decomposing organic materials like cellulose and chitin helping recycle the soil and some produce antibiotics for example streptomyces.
Lastly but definitely not least is acidobacteria. The phylum acidobacteria isn't fully yet understood but we do know that they are mostly found in acidic conditions, one of which being acidic soil. Acidobacteria is a great example of how diverse bacteria can be with it being one of the most abundant found in our soil yet so much is still unknown about it partly due to its slow growing nature. We do know though that most but not all are acidophilic and play a huge role in the breaking down of carbon and nitrogen in our soil. Under this phylum bacteria can be anerobic or aerobic. Acidobacteria are thought also to beneficial roles in plant growth and soil health as they are thought to increase solubilization of phosphorus which is crucial to our plants survival.
Microbial diversity is a subject so deep with so many different angles. One of the very big subjects in which though is our soil. Bacteria help our plants grow, cycle essential nutrients in our ecosystem and even help reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide helping mitigate climate change. Bacteria as a whole being known to cause disease actually also help reduce it, specifically Bacillus; opening the door to possible reduction in pesticide use. Being utilized in research and even out in nature, bacterial diversity plays a massive role in the resilience of our environment.
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