Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2021
Microfluidic chips provide visual access to in situ soil ecology
Mafla-Endara, Paola Micaela; Arellano-Caicedo, Carlos; Aleklett, Kristin; Pucetaite, Milda; Ohlsson, Pelle; Hammer, Edith C.Abstract
Mafla-Endara et al. incubate a microfluidic chip with and directly in soil in order to examine interactions between microbial communities and the pore space microstructures. This work shows the spatiotemporal changes of soil microhabitats and demonstrates that fungal hyphae increase the dispersal range and abundance of water-dwelling organisms across air pockets.Microbes govern most soil functions, but investigation of these processes at the scale of their cells has been difficult to accomplish. Here we incubate microfabricated, transparent 'soil chips' with soil, or bury them directly in the field. Both soil microbes and minerals enter the chips, which enables us to investigate diverse community interdependences, such as inter-kingdom and food-web interactions, and feedbacks between microbes and the pore space microstructures. The presence of hyphae ('fungal highways') strongly and frequently increases the dispersal range and abundance of water-dwelling organisms such as bacteria and protists across air pockets. Physical forces such as water movements, but also organisms and especially fungi form new microhabitats by altering the pore space architecture and distribution of soil minerals in the chip. We show that soil chips hold a large potential for studying in-situ microbial interactions and soil functions, and to interconnect field microbial ecology with laboratory experiments.Published in
Communications biology2021, volume: 4, number: 1, article number: 889
Publisher: NATURE PORTFOLIO
Authors' information
Mafla-Endara, Paola Micaela
Lund University
Arellano-Caicedo, Carlos
Lund University
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Protection Biology
Lund University
Pucetaite, Milda
Lund University
Ohlsson, Pelle
Lund University
Hammer, Edith C.
Lund University
UKÄ Subject classification
Microbiology
Soil Science
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02379-5
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/113229