Evaluating rRNA as an indicator of microbial activity in environmental communities: limitations and uses

By S. Blazewicz, Romain L. Barnard, R. Daly, M. Firestone. The ISME Journal, 2013

767 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Ecology, Molecular Biology, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ed13f220d42270479c8c881d44d44a1fe92b7eea

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

1. Noah Fierer
2. J. Schimel
3. Brajesh Kumar Singh
4. M. Firestone
5. D. Myrold
6. Janet K. Jansson
7. Josh D. Neufeld
8. Romain L. Barnard

In Molecular Biology

1. J. Schimel
2. Noah Fierer
3. Josh D. Neufeld
4. Janet K. Jansson
5. Brajesh Kumar Singh
6. M. Schloter
7. D. Myrold
8. M. Lynch

In Pollution

1. Michael Wagner
2. G. Berg
3. Noah Fierer
4. D. Myrold
5. J. Schimel

Citations in the corpus

• Microbiome definition re-visited: old concepts and new challenges (2020, background): “Importantly, although many authors in the past have linked microbial activity with the rRNA content, recent studies have indicated severe limitations of this concept, and only mRNA can be considered as a reliable indicator of the metabolic state [95].”
• Embracing the unknown: disentangling the complexities of the soil microbiome (2017, background): “This may even hold true for RNA-based (transcriptome) community analyses 75 .”
• The Potential of Metagenomic Approaches for Understanding Soil Microbial Processes (2014, background): “org/publications/sssaj 7 leading to the use of the rRNA/DNA ratio as an indicator of relative microbial activity (Blazewicz et al., 2013; DeAngelis et al., 2010; Muttray et al., 2001).”
• Responses of soil bacterial and fungal communities to extreme desiccation and rewetting (2013, methodology): “The abundance of rRNA has commonly been used as an indicator of activity (for example, Schippers et al., 2005; Jones and Lennon, 2010; see review by Blazewicz et al., 2013).”
• Life in Dry Soils: Effects of Drought on Soil Microbial Communities and Processes (2018, background): “The nature of microbial response to drought and rewetting thus remains complex, given the multiple ways in which we may measure and assess activity and growth with microorganisms (Blazewicz et al. 2013).”
• Ecology and exploration of the rare biosphere (2015, background): “However, recent research has challenged the assumption that RNA analysis captures nucleic acid proportionally to cell activity 166 , and more research is required to identify optimal methods for targeting viable microbial community members.”