Metatranscriptome of Japanese paddy soil

Because As speciation affect its bioavailability, toxicity, environmental fate and behavior, it is important to understand the factors driving changes of the speciation in environment. Since arsenic (As) uptake by rice is influenced by As speciation in soil and the metabolism of soil microorganisms have an impact on As dynamics, there is interest in the diversity of microbial community and functional genes involved in arsenic cycle. However, the key microorganisms or As metabolic genes in Japanese paddy soil are largely unknown. In this study, we incubated three different paddy soils and analysed the microbial diversity and gene expression of arsenic-related genes.