Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Laboratory of Nematology, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
FEMS Microbiol Rev. 2018 May 1;42(3):293-323. doi: 10.1093/femsre/fuy006.
Protists include all eukaryotes except plants, fungi and animals. They are an essential, yet often forgotten, component of the soil microbiome. Method developments have now furthered our understanding of the real taxonomic and functional diversity of soil protists. They occupy key roles in microbial foodwebs as consumers of bacteria, fungi and other small eukaryotes. As parasites of plants, animals and even of larger protists, they regulate populations and shape communities. Pathogenic forms play a major role in public health issues as human parasites, or act as agricultural pests. Predatory soil protists release nutrients enhancing plant growth. Soil protists are of key importance for our understanding of eukaryotic evolution and microbial biogeography. Soil protists are also useful in applied research as bioindicators of soil quality, as models in ecotoxicology and as potential biofertilizers and biocontrol agents. In this review, we provide an overview of the enormous morphological, taxonomical and functional diversity of soil protists, and discuss current challenges and opportunities in soil protistology. Research in soil biology would clearly benefit from incorporating more protistology alongside the study of bacteria, fungi and animals.
原生生物包括除植物、真菌和动物以外的所有真核生物。它们是土壤微生物组中不可或缺但经常被忽视的组成部分。方法的发展进一步加深了我们对土壤原生生物真正的分类和功能多样性的理解。它们在微生物食物网中扮演着关键角色，作为细菌、真菌和其他小型真核生物的消费者。作为植物、动物甚至更大原生生物的寄生虫，它们调节种群并塑造群落。致病形式在公共卫生问题中作为人类寄生虫发挥着重要作用，或者作为农业害虫。掠食性土壤原生生物释放养分，促进植物生长。土壤原生生物对我们理解真核生物进化和微生物生物地理学至关重要。土壤原生生物在应用研究中也很有用，可作为土壤质量的生物指标，可作为生态毒理学模型，也可作为潜在的生物肥料和生物防治剂。在这篇综述中，我们概述了土壤原生生物巨大的形态、分类和功能多样性，并讨论了土壤原生生物学当前的挑战和机遇。土壤生物学的研究显然受益于在研究细菌、真菌和动物的同时，更多地开展原生生物学研究。
