FUNCTIONAL METABOLIC DIVERSITY IN MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES ASSOCIATED TO RHIZOSPHERE SOIL OF MAIZE (Zea mays L.) AMARILLO-ZAMORANO AND JALA CULTIVARS

Abstract

Information about functional diversity (metabolic potential) is essential to understand the role of microbial communities in different environments. The Biolog System® methodology was introduced into ecological studies to estimate the metabolic potential of microbial communities, which can be determined through the estimation of an index of functional diversity, allowing to establish comparisons between different communities and following the evolution of a specific community when facing the variations of environmental conditions. In this study, samples from the soil of maize (Zea mays L.) rhizosphere cultivars Amarillo-Zamorano and Jala were analyzed, in different cultivation stages. The functional characterization
was founded on determining the physiological profile of the microbial community, in which its metabolic behavior is determined against a set of substrates and carbon sources with the aim of establishing
a characteristic response pattern in vitro and physiological profile at the level of community that offer the advantage of not requiring the isolation of axenic crops. The analyses of functional metabolic diversity
through estimation of the AWCD and the Shannon-Weaver Index, served as useful indicators that evidenced that there are changes in the functional diversity of microbial communities, both in the different stages of the cultivation and in the different cultivars of maize evaluated.