Differences in archaeal diversity and potential ecological functions between saline and hypersaline lakes on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were driven by multiple environmental and non-environmental factors beyond the salinity

• Published in: BMC microbiology Vol. 24; no. 1; p. 153
• Main Authors: Wang, Yaqiong, Li, Wenxin, Bao, Guoyuan, Bai, Mohan, Ye, Huike
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 04-05-2024; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Archaea; Archaea - classification; Archaea - genetics; Archaea - metabolism; Archaeabacteria; Bacteria; Biodiversity; Biogeochemical cycles; Biological diversity; Chlorophyll; Community structure; Diversity; DNA sequencing; DNA, Archaeal - genetics; Ecological function; Ecological functions; Ecosystem; Environmental aspects; Environmental factors; Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Lakes; Lakes - chemistry; Lakes - microbiology; Marine microbiology; Metabolism; Methanogenesis; Microbiological research; Microorganisms; Network analysis; Nitrate reduction; Nitrates; Nitrogen - analysis; Nitrogen - metabolism; Nucleotide sequencing; Phylogeny; Physiological aspects; Plateau saline lakes; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; Saline environments; Salinity; Salinity effects; Salt lakes; Structure-function relationships; Taxonomy; Tibet; Tibet; China; Great Salt Lake; Tibetan Plateau; United States > US; Plateau saline lakes; Ecological functions; Archaea; Network analysis; Diversity
• ISSN: 1471-2180; 1471-2180
• DOI: 10.1186/s12866-024-03307-3

Saline lakes are home to various archaea that play special and crucial roles in the global biogeochemical cycle. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau hosts a large number of lakes with diverse salinity ranging from 0.1 to over 400 g/L, harboring complex and diverse archaea. To the best of our knowledge, the formation mechanisms and potential ecological roles of archaea in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau saline lakes remain largely unknown.
Using High-throughput Illumina sequencing, we uncovered the vastly distinct archaea communities between two typical saline lakes with significant salinity differences on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau (Qinghai saline lake and Chaka hypersaline lake) and suggested archaea played different important roles in methanogenesis-related and nitrate reduction-related functions of these two lakes, respectively. Rather than the individual effect of salinity, the composite effect of salinity with diverse environmental parameters (e.g., temperature, chlorophyll a, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus) dominated the explanation of the variations in archaeal community structure in different habitats. Based on the network analysis, we further found the correlations between dominant archaeal OTUs were tight but significantly different between the two habitats, implying that archaeal interactions may also largely determine the shape of archaeal communities.
The present study improved our understanding of the structure and function of archaea in different saline lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and provided a new perspective on the mechanisms underlying shaping their communities.