Exploration of Microbial Community Dynamics in Glyphosate Treated Soil Influencing Different Soil Variables

Abstract

Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum systemic organophosphorus herbicide used to control broad-leaved weeds and perennial grasses. The linkage between biodiversity and agroecosystem functioning necessitates elucidation of relationships between biotic and abiotic components, diverse impacts of glyphosate persistence and enzymes mediated catalysis through specified metabolic pathways leading to microbial community dynamics in agroecosystem. Metagenomic based high-throughput sequencing explores glyphosate-induced taxonomic and functional dynamics of microbiome due to longer half-life and ecological toxicity, which necessitate soil quality assessment and prioritize its inclusion in sustainable agroecosystem. The study was designed to elucidate glyphosate induced shift in nutrients, microbial biomass and enzyme activities influencing microbial community dynamics in agroecosystem. Studies revealed wide variations in available soil nutrients and microbial biomass in different days after glyphosate treatment. FTIR analysis revealed the existence of different chemical moieties with characteristic IR fingerprints ranging from 910 cm-1 to 3895 cm-1 . Microbial profiling of glyphosate-treated soil at different days after treatment showed wide variations in relative distribution of bacterial taxa at different taxonomic level. Actinomycetota (33.81-44.76)%, Pseudomonadota (34.20-43.16)% and Acidobacteriota (4.72-7.35)% were the dominant phyla. Further, the feature selection in glyphosate-treated soil revealed stronger correlation (TN, MBC, MBN, MBP and BSR), which influences microbial community dynamics in glyphosate-treated soil over time. Thus, catabolic profiling offers an effective approach to elucidate functional diversity influencing soil quality.