TY  - JOUR
U1  - Wissenschaftlicher Artikel
A1  - Kang, Longfei
A1  - Dumack, Kenneth
T1  - Protistan Predators Outshine Fungi in Forest Soil Activity
JF  - Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology
N2  - Despite extensive research on fungal communities in forest soils, our understanding of the whole eukaryotic diversity and distribution remains limited. Moreover, traditional amplicon sequencing methods often introduce severe PCR and primer biases, further hindering accurate assessment of the microbial community composition in forest soils. To address these challenges, this study used a public metatranscriptomic data set to analyze 51 forest soil samples comprising four countries (Canada, France, Spain, and Sweden). Our results reveal that Arcellinida , a eukaryotic order of shell‐bearing amoebae, represent the most abundant eukaryotic taxon in forest soils, with an average relative abundance of 12.6%. This finding challenges the conventional view that fungi dominate eukaryotic diversity in these ecosystems. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that Arcellinida ( R 2  = 0.066, p  = 0.006) and soil pH ( R 2  = 0.126, p  < 0.001) are key biological and environmental drivers, respectively, shaping the composition of eukaryotic communities in forest soils, suggesting distinct impact on the microbial community through predation. These findings offer novel insights into the ecological significance of microbial eukaryotes in forest ecosystems and provide a new framework for investigating the predatory dynamics centered on Arcellinida in forest soil microbial networks.
AB  - Despite extensive research on fungal communities in forest soils, our understanding of the whole eukaryotic diversity and distribution remains limited. Moreover, traditional amplicon sequencing methods often introduce severe PCR and primer biases, further hindering accurate assessment of the microbial community composition in forest soils. To address these challenges, this study used a public metatranscriptomic data set to analyze 51 forest soil samples comprising four countries (Canada, France, Spain, and Sweden). Our results reveal that Arcellinida , a eukaryotic order of shell‐bearing amoebae, represent the most abundant eukaryotic taxon in forest soils, with an average relative abundance of 12.6%. This finding challenges the conventional view that fungi dominate eukaryotic diversity in these ecosystems. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that Arcellinida ( R 2  = 0.066, p  = 0.006) and soil pH ( R 2  = 0.126, p  < 0.001) are key biological and environmental drivers, respectively, shaping the composition of eukaryotic communities in forest soils, suggesting distinct impact on the microbial community through predation. These findings offer novel insights into the ecological significance of microbial eukaryotes in forest ecosystems and provide a new framework for investigating the predatory dynamics centered on Arcellinida in forest soil microbial networks.
KW  - Arcellinida
KW  - forest soil ecosystems
KW  - metatranscriptomics
KW  - microbial communities
KW  - microbial ecology
Y1  - 2026
SN  - 1066-5234
SS  - 1066-5234
SN  - 1550-7408
SS  - 1550-7408
UN  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:kob7-26949
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/jeu.70072
DO  - https://doi.org/10.1111/jeu.70072
VL  - 73
IS  - 3
AR  - e70072
S2  - e70072
SP  - 10
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
ER  -