Salinity Shapes Microbial Diversity and Community Structure in Surface Sediments of the Qinghai-Tibetan Lakes

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2016 Apr 27

PMID 27113678

Citations 73

Authors

Jian Yang

Lian Ma

Hongchen Jiang

Geng Wu

Hailiang Dong

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Investigating microbial response to environmental variables is of great importance for understanding of microbial acclimatization and evolution in natural environments. However, little is known about how microbial communities responded to environmental factors (e.g. salinity, geographic distance) in lake surface sediments of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). In this study, microbial diversity and community structure in the surface sediments of nine lakes on the QTP were investigated by using the Illumina Miseq sequencing technique and the resulting microbial data were statistically analyzed in combination with environmental variables. The results showed total microbial community of the studied lakes was significantly correlated (r = 0.631, P < 0.001) with lake salinity instead of geographic distance. This suggests that lake salinity is more important than geographic distance in shaping the microbial diversity and community structure in the studied samples. In addition, the abundant and rare taxa (OTUs with relative abundance higher than 1% and lower than 0.01% within one sample, respectively) were significantly (P < 0.05) correlated (r = 0.427 and 0.783, respectively) with salinity, suggesting rare taxa might be more sensitive to salinity than their abundant counterparts, thus cautions should be taken in future when evaluating microbial response (abundant vs. rare sub-communities) to environmental conditions.

Citing Articles

Spatiotemporal variation in biomass abundance of different algal species in Lake Hulun using machine learning and Sentinel-3 images.

Yan Z, Fang C, Song K, Wang X, Wen Z, Shang Y Sci Rep. 2025; 15(1):2739.

PMID: 39838060 PMC: 11751342. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-87338-4.

Functional traits and adaptation of lake microbiomes on the Tibetan Plateau.

Feng X, Xing P, Tao Y, Wang X, Wu Q, Liu Y Microbiome. 2024; 12(1):264.

PMID: 39707567 PMC: 11662823. DOI: 10.1186/s40168-024-01979-7.

Microbiota Composition Associates With Mosquito Productivity Outcomes in Belowground Larval Habitats.

Zhao S, Sommer A, Bartlett D, Harbison J, Irwin P, Coon K Mol Ecol. 2024; 34(2):e17614.

PMID: 39673091 PMC: 11701876. DOI: 10.1111/mec.17614.

SALINITY-Induced Changes in Diversity, Stability, and Functional Profiles of Microbial Communities in Different Saline Lakes in Arid Areas.

Gao L, Rao M, Liu Y, Wang P, Lian Z, Abdugheni R Microb Ecol. 2024; 87(1):135.

PMID: 39482450 PMC: 11527964. DOI: 10.1007/s00248-024-02442-8.

Unravelling biosynthesis and biodegradation potentials of microbial dark matters in hypersaline lakes.

Qiu Z, Zhu Y, Zhang Q, Qiao X, Mu R, Xu Z Environ Sci Ecotechnol. 2024; 20:100359.

PMID: 39221074 PMC: 11361885. DOI: 10.1016/j.ese.2023.100359.

References

Oren A . Thermodynamic limits to microbial life at high salt concentrations. Environ Microbiol. 2010; 13(8):1908-23. DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2010.02365.x. View

Xiong J, Liu Y, Lin X, Zhang H, Zeng J, Hou J . Geographic distance and pH drive bacterial distribution in alkaline lake sediments across Tibetan Plateau. Environ Microbiol. 2012; 14(9):2457-66. PMC: 3477592. DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2012.02799.x. View

Newton R, Jones S, Eiler A, McMahon K, Bertilsson S . A guide to the natural history of freshwater lake bacteria. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 2011; 75(1):14-49. PMC: 3063352. DOI: 10.1128/MMBR.00028-10. View

Jiang H, Dong H, Yu B, Liu X, Li Y, Ji S . Microbial response to salinity change in Lake Chaka, a hypersaline lake on Tibetan plateau. Environ Microbiol. 2007; 9(10):2603-21. DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2007.01377.x. View

Jiang H, Huang Q, Deng S, Dong H, Yu B . Planktonic actinobacterial diversity along a salinity gradient of a river and five lakes on the Tibetan Plateau. Extremophiles. 2010; 14(4):367-76. DOI: 10.1007/s00792-010-0316-5. View

Pedros-Alio C . The rare bacterial biosphere. Ann Rev Mar Sci. 2012; 4:449-66. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-marine-120710-100948. View

Oren A . Microbial life at high salt concentrations: phylogenetic and metabolic diversity. Saline Syst. 2008; 4:2. PMC: 2329653. DOI: 10.1186/1746-1448-4-2. View

Caporaso J, Lauber C, Walters W, Berg-Lyons D, Huntley J, Fierer N . Ultra-high-throughput microbial community analysis on the Illumina HiSeq and MiSeq platforms. ISME J. 2012; 6(8):1621-4. PMC: 3400413. DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2012.8. View

Martiny J, Eisen J, Penn K, Allison S, Horner-Devine M . Drivers of bacterial beta-diversity depend on spatial scale. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011; 108(19):7850-4. PMC: 3093525. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1016308108. View

10.

Wang Q, Garrity G, Tiedje J, Cole J . Naive Bayesian classifier for rapid assignment of rRNA sequences into the new bacterial taxonomy. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2007; 73(16):5261-7. PMC: 1950982. DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00062-07. View

11.

Caporaso J, Kuczynski J, Stombaugh J, Bittinger K, Bushman F, Costello E . QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data. Nat Methods. 2010; 7(5):335-6. PMC: 3156573. DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.f.303. View

12.

Martiny J, Bohannan B, Brown J, Colwell R, Fuhrman J, Green J . Microbial biogeography: putting microorganisms on the map. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2006; 4(2):102-12. DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro1341. View

13.

Logares R, Audic S, Bass D, Bittner L, Boutte C, Christen R . Patterns of rare and abundant marine microbial eukaryotes. Curr Biol. 2014; 24(8):813-21. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.02.050. View

14.

Xing P, Hahn M, Wu Q . Low taxon richness of bacterioplankton in high-altitude lakes of the eastern tibetan plateau, with a predominance of Bacteroidetes and Synechococcus spp. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2009; 75(22):7017-25. PMC: 2786500. DOI: 10.1128/AEM.01544-09. View

15.

Wu Q, Zwart G, Schauer M, Kamst-van Agterveld M, Hahn M . Bacterioplankton community composition along a salinity gradient of sixteen high-mountain lakes located on the Tibetan Plateau, China. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2006; 72(8):5478-85. PMC: 1538701. DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00767-06. View

16.

Hambright K, Beyer J, Easton J, Zamor R, Easton A, Hallidayschult T . The niche of an invasive marine microbe in a subtropical freshwater impoundment. ISME J. 2014; 9(1):256-64. PMC: 4274415. DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2014.103. View

17.

Logares R, Lindstrom E, Langenheder S, Logue J, Paterson H, Laybourn-Parry J . Biogeography of bacterial communities exposed to progressive long-term environmental change. ISME J. 2012; 7(5):937-48. PMC: 3635229. DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2012.168. View

18.

Hollister E, Engledow A, Hammett A, Provin T, Wilkinson H, Gentry T . Shifts in microbial community structure along an ecological gradient of hypersaline soils and sediments. ISME J. 2010; 4(6):829-38. DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2010.3. View

19.

Liu L, Yang J, Yu Z, Wilkinson D . The biogeography of abundant and rare bacterioplankton in the lakes and reservoirs of China. ISME J. 2015; 9(9):2068-77. PMC: 4542038. DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2015.29. View

20.

Foti M, Sorokin D, Zacharova E, Pimenov N, Kuenen J, Muyzer G . Bacterial diversity and activity along a salinity gradient in soda lakes of the Kulunda Steppe (Altai, Russia). Extremophiles. 2007; 12(1):133-45. DOI: 10.1007/s00792-007-0117-7. View