Abundance and community structure of ammonia oxidizing archaea and bacteria in response to peanut growth under controlled condition in Shandong, China

Based on a three-year field experiment under controlled condition in Ji’nan, China, the effects of peanut growth on the variation in the abundance and community structure of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA) before and after peanut growth were investigated through quantitative PCR and cluster analysis of terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Our results show that the community composition of AOA and AOB was greatly affected by the peanut growth leading to the decreased abundance of AOA and increased abundance of AOB. Furthermore, AOA and AOB community structures varied before and after peanut growth. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that all AOA and AOB community sequences were clustered into the uncultured group. Altogether, the results suggested that the abundance of AOA and AOB in soil and their community compositions can be greatly affected by the peanut growth.