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The Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology
Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Molecular profiling of soils with microbial populations
The diversity of microorganisms in soils is tremendous. Knowledge about this diversity is rapidly increasing, mostly due to the application of molecular principles, the development of high throughput technologies and of bioinformatic tools for the treatment of large-scale data sets.
An implication of these advances is that it may be possible to develop protocols to use microbial population profiles to characterize soils and correlate between them. Possible applications include ecological studies (e.g. population distribution), agricultural manipulations (e.g. the impact of waste/reclaimed water) and forensic uses (e.g. matching locations using soil samples in criminal investigations).
While such approaches are potentially powerful, soil heterogeneity on the one hand, and large-scale distribution of microbial populations on the other hand may reduce their effectiveness.
We are conducting a pilot study on a countrywide basis to analyze soils using various microbial populations as variables, manipulations and statistical methods. The project is lead by Dr. Zohar Pasternak in this lab. Partners in this project are The Israeli Police Forensic Laboratories, Dr. Osnat Gilor from the Sde Boker campus (Ben Gurion University) and Dr. Dror Minz (Agricultural Research Organization).
Diverse soils and a T-RFLP electropherogram.