Background Resident soil microbiota play key roles in sustaining the core ecosystem processes of terrestrial Antarctica, often involving unique taxa with novel functional traits. However, the full scope of biodiversity and the niche-neutral processes underlying these communities remain unclear. In this study, we combine multivariate analyses, co-occurrence networks and fitted species abundance distributions on an extensive set of bacterial, micro-eukaryote and archaeal amplicon sequencing data to unravel soil microbiome patterns of nine sites across two east Antarctic regions, the Vestfold Hills and Windmill Islands. To our knowledge, this is the first microbial biodiversity report on the hyperarid Vestfold Hills soil environment. Results Our findings reveal distinct regional differences in phylogenetic composition, abundance and richness amongst microbial taxa. Actinobacteria dominated soils in both regions, yet Bacteroidetes were more abundant in the Vestfold Hills compared to the Windmill Islands, which contained a high abundance of novel phyla. However, intra-region comparisons demonstrate greater homogeneity of soil microbial communities and measured environmental parameters between sites at the Vestfold Hills. Community richness is largely driven by a variable suite of parameters but robust associations between co-existing members highlight potential interactions and sharing of niche space by diverse taxa from all three microbial domains of life examined. Overall, non-neutral processes appear to structure the polar soil microbiomes studied here, with niche partitioning being particularly strong for bacterial communities at the Windmill Islands. Eukaryotic and archaeal communities reveal weaker niche-driven signatures accompanied by multimodality, suggesting the emergence of neutrality. Conclusion We provide new information on assemblage patterns, environmental drivers and non-random occurrences for Antarctic soil microbiomes, particularly the Vestfold Hills, where basic diversity, ecology and life history strategies of resident microbiota are largely unknown. Greater understanding of these basic ecological concepts is a pivotal step towards effective conservation management.

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Quantification of microbial functional genes enhances predictions of soil biogeochemical process rates, but reliance on low-throughput quantitative PCR (qPCR) limits the scope of ecological studies to a handful of targets. Here, we explore whether microfluidic qPCR (MFQPCR) is a viable high-throughput alternative for functional gene quantification, by evaluating the efficiency, specificity and sensitivity of 29 established and 12 newly designed primer pairs targeting taxonomic, nitrogen-cycling, and hydrocarbon degradation genes in genomic DNA soil extracts, under three different sets of MFQPCR assay conditions. Without curation, commonly-used qPCR primer pairs yielded an extreme range of reaction efficiencies (25.9-100.1%), but when conditions were optimized, MFQPCR produced copy-number estimates comparable to traditional qPCR. To guide microbial soil ecologists considering adoption of MFQPCR, we present suggestions for primer selection, including omission of inosines, degeneracy scores of < 9, amplicon sizes of ≤ 211 bp, and GC content of 32-61%. We conclude that, while the nanoliter reaction volumes, rapid thermocycling and one-size-fits-all reaction conditions of MFQPCR necessitates more stringent primer selection criteria than is commonly applied in soil microbial ecology, the ability to quantify up to 96 targets in 96 samples makes MFQPCR a valuable tool for monitoring shifts in functional community abundances. MFQPCR will particularly suit studies targeting multiple clade-specific functional genes, or when primer design is informed by previous knowledge of the environment.

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This article identifies how a cohort of preservice teachers educated during the No Child Left Behind Era thought about the teaching of writing when they entered a secondary English Language Arts (ELA) teacher preparation program. Most participants shared the beliefs that: (1) writing was primarily the demonstration of specific skills, often on a standardized test; (2) alternatives to the five-paragraph essay would be extra, with formulaic writing central to instruction; (3) teachers had little role in student writing development beyond assigning writing; (4) feedback on writing should be ‘objective’ and tied to a grade; and (5) the purpose of ELA is primarily to teach literature. Authors believe identifying preservice teachers’ beliefs about writing and the role of the writing teacher at the beginning of a program can help teacher educators design experiences to expand students’ notions of literacy and of writing instruction.