v
Preface
Soil is considered as a complex and dynamic biological system that provides diverse
habitats for the microbial community and is a hotspot for belowground microbial
interactions. The soil microbial community acts as a central factor in mediating the
key ecosystem services and functions. However, unravelling this complex nature of
the microbial world and successfully utilizing all positive interactions for multipurpose environmental benefits is still a major challenge for humanity. Although scientists have studied much about the microbially mediated soil functions such as
biogeochemical cycling, enzyme activities, and soil respiration, still it is difficult to
decipher the role of individual microbial species in key ecosystem functions as this
requires high-throughput genetic, phylogenetic, and functional profiling of microorganisms from the complex soil matrix. However, the advent of next-generation
molecular techniques has provided many inventive techniques for exploring microbial communities including the culture-independent study of the soil microbiome.
Such cultivation-independent genomic approaches are more preferred for exploring
the ecology and diversity of soil microbes because most soil microbes cannot be
cultured. Moreover, soil metagenomics has deepened our knowledge about the
complete characterization of new microorganisms, genes, gene products, and
whole-community DNA sequences for community analysis and comparison of different microbial assemblages. Soil microbiome studies are not only necessary for
elucidating the biological functions of soil but also for exploring the effect of various biotic and edaphic factors on soil microorganisms. Such studies provide better
insight on how microbial communities are structured in soil, and therefore even the
newer domains such as microbial biogeography are becoming increasingly popular
in soil ecology.
With this background, the present book unveils the issues and challenges related
to the exploration of soil microbial diversity, various kinds of interactions in the
microbial world, and exploiting such beneficial interactions for ecosystem sustainability. Overall, the present book is aimed to provide state-of-the-art knowledge of
modern techniques for characterizing soil microorganisms at taxonomic, functional,
and community levels and also the frontiers in bioinformatics for unravelling the
soil microbiome. We sincerely hope that this book will strengthen scientific
Preface
Soil is considered as a complex and dynamic biological system that provides diverse
habitats for the microbial community and is a hotspot for belowground microbial
interactions. The soil microbial community acts as a central factor in mediating the
key ecosystem services and functions. However, unravelling this complex nature of
the microbial world and successfully utilizing all positive interactions for multipurpose environmental benefits is still a major challenge for humanity. Although scientists have studied much about the microbially mediated soil functions such as
biogeochemical cycling, enzyme activities, and soil respiration, still it is difficult to
decipher the role of individual microbial species in key ecosystem functions as this
requires high-throughput genetic, phylogenetic, and functional profiling of microorganisms from the complex soil matrix. However, the advent of next-generation
molecular techniques has provided many inventive techniques for exploring microbial communities including the culture-independent study of the soil microbiome.
Such cultivation-independent genomic approaches are more preferred for exploring
the ecology and diversity of soil microbes because most soil microbes cannot be
cultured. Moreover, soil metagenomics has deepened our knowledge about the
complete characterization of new microorganisms, genes, gene products, and
whole-community DNA sequences for community analysis and comparison of different microbial assemblages. Soil microbiome studies are not only necessary for
elucidating the biological functions of soil but also for exploring the effect of various biotic and edaphic factors on soil microorganisms. Such studies provide better
insight on how microbial communities are structured in soil, and therefore even the
newer domains such as microbial biogeography are becoming increasingly popular
in soil ecology.
With this background, the present book unveils the issues and challenges related
to the exploration of soil microbial diversity, various kinds of interactions in the
microbial world, and exploiting such beneficial interactions for ecosystem sustainability. Overall, the present book is aimed to provide state-of-the-art knowledge of
modern techniques for characterizing soil microorganisms at taxonomic, functional,
and community levels and also the frontiers in bioinformatics for unravelling the
soil microbiome. We sincerely hope that this book will strengthen scientific