Soil drying challenges microbial viability and survival, with bacteria employing various mechanisms to respond to shifts in osmolarity, including dormancy or metabolic upregulation of osmoprotectants. However, the extent to which these responses are shaped by an organism's phylogeny, or the climate history of a given environment is poorly understood. This study examines the responses of phylogenetically similar bacteria from semi-arid and humid tropical forest soils to osmotic and matric stress using synchrotron radiation-based Fourier Transform Infrared spectromicroscopy. This non-destructive approach depicts the biochemical phenotype for whole cells under control and stress conditions. We observed that, under osmotic stress, bacteria upregulated cell-signaling pathways, rapidly turned over lipid-storage compounds, and increased osmolyte production. In contrast, matric stress induced a more muted response, typically elevating the production of carbohydrate stress compounds, such as glycine betaine and trehalose. Whereas phylogenetically similar bacteria showed comparable biochemistry under control conditions, climate history played an important role in regulating responses to stress, whereby a stronger metabolic response was observed from semi-arid relative to tropical forest isolates. We conclude that bacterial stress response to drought can be more diverse than previously observed and regulated by both phylogeny and climate history.

Berkeley Synchrotron Infrared Structural Biology Program Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley CA 94720 United States

Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley CA 94720 United States

Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering Oregon State University Corvallis OR 97330 United States

Department of Biology Haverford College Haverford PA 19041 United States

Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability Colorado State University Campus Delivery 1476 Fort Collins CO 80523 United States

Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology Institute of Microbiology Czech Academy of Sciences Vídeňská 1083142 20 Prague 4 Czechia

Life and Environmental Science Department University of California Merced Merced CA 95343 United States

Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley CA 94720 United States

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Apartado Postal 0843 03092 Ancon Panamá República de Panamá

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