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Salinity matters the most: How environmental factors shape the diversity and structure of cyanobacterial mat communities in high altitude arid ecosystems
INTRODUCTION: Microbial mats are complex communities of benthic microorganisms that occur at the soil-water interphase in lakes’ shores, streams, and ponds. In the cold, mountainous desert of Eastern Pamir (Tajikistan), where scarce water bodies are influenced by extreme environmental conditions, ph...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2023
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10136773/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37125173 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1108694 |
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author | Sandzewicz, Małgorzata Khomutovska, Nataliia Łach, Łukasz Kwiatowski, Jan Niyatbekov, Toirbek Suska-Malawska, Małgorzata Jasser, Iwona |
author_facet | Sandzewicz, Małgorzata Khomutovska, Nataliia Łach, Łukasz Kwiatowski, Jan Niyatbekov, Toirbek Suska-Malawska, Małgorzata Jasser, Iwona |
author_sort | Sandzewicz, Małgorzata |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: Microbial mats are complex communities of benthic microorganisms that occur at the soil-water interphase in lakes’ shores, streams, and ponds. In the cold, mountainous desert of Eastern Pamir (Tajikistan), where scarce water bodies are influenced by extreme environmental conditions, photosynthetic cyanobacteria form diverse mats. The mats are characterized by different morphology and thickness. Their habitats exhibit a wide range of conditions; from oligosaline to hypersaline, oligotrophic to hypertrophic, and from cold ponds to hot springs. The aim of the present study was to reveal the taxonomic composition and structure of these mats and to examine which environmental factors influence them. METHODS: Fifty-one mats were collected from small water bodies around Bulunkul, Karakul, and Rangkul Lakes in 2015 and 2017. The physical and chemical properties of the water were measured in situ, while the concentration of nutrients was analyzed ex-situ. To reveal the taxonomic composition of the mats, the hypervariable V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was examined using NGS technology. RESULTS: The results of bioinformatic analyses were compared with microscopic observations. They showed that Cyanobacteria was the dominant phylum, constituting on average 35% of bacterial ASVs, followed by Proteobacteria (28%), Bacteroidota (11%), and Firmicutes (9%). Synechococcales, Oscillatoriales, and Nostocales orders prevailed in Oxyphotobacteria, with a low contribution of Chroococcales, Gloeobacterales, and Chroococcidiopsidales. Occasionally the non-photosynthetic Vampirivibrionia (Melainabacteria) and Sericytochromatia from sister clades to Oxyphotobacteria were noted in the samples. Moreover, there was a high percentage of unidentified cyanobacterial sequences, as well as the recently described Hillbrichtia pamiria gen. et sp. nov., present in one of the samples. Salinity, followed by Na and K concentrations, correlated positively with the composition and structure of Oxyphotobacteria on different taxonomic levels and the abundance of all bacterial ASVs. DISCUSSION: The study suggests that the investigated communities possibly host more novel and endemic species. Among the environmental factors, salinity influenced the Oxyphotobacteria communities the most. Overall, the microenvironmental factors, i.e. the conditions in each of the reservoirs seemed to have a larger impact on the diversity of microbial mats in Pamir than the “subregional” factors, related to altitude, mean annual air temperature and distance between these subregions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10136773 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-101367732023-04-28 Salinity matters the most: How environmental factors shape the diversity and structure of cyanobacterial mat communities in high altitude arid ecosystems Sandzewicz, Małgorzata Khomutovska, Nataliia Łach, Łukasz Kwiatowski, Jan Niyatbekov, Toirbek Suska-Malawska, Małgorzata Jasser, Iwona Front Microbiol Microbiology INTRODUCTION: Microbial mats are complex communities of benthic microorganisms that occur at the soil-water interphase in lakes’ shores, streams, and ponds. In the cold, mountainous desert of Eastern Pamir (Tajikistan), where scarce water bodies are influenced by extreme environmental conditions, photosynthetic cyanobacteria form diverse mats. The mats are characterized by different morphology and thickness. Their habitats exhibit a wide range of conditions; from oligosaline to hypersaline, oligotrophic to hypertrophic, and from cold ponds to hot springs. The aim of the present study was to reveal the taxonomic composition and structure of these mats and to examine which environmental factors influence them. METHODS: Fifty-one mats were collected from small water bodies around Bulunkul, Karakul, and Rangkul Lakes in 2015 and 2017. The physical and chemical properties of the water were measured in situ, while the concentration of nutrients was analyzed ex-situ. To reveal the taxonomic composition of the mats, the hypervariable V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was examined using NGS technology. RESULTS: The results of bioinformatic analyses were compared with microscopic observations. They showed that Cyanobacteria was the dominant phylum, constituting on average 35% of bacterial ASVs, followed by Proteobacteria (28%), Bacteroidota (11%), and Firmicutes (9%). Synechococcales, Oscillatoriales, and Nostocales orders prevailed in Oxyphotobacteria, with a low contribution of Chroococcales, Gloeobacterales, and Chroococcidiopsidales. Occasionally the non-photosynthetic Vampirivibrionia (Melainabacteria) and Sericytochromatia from sister clades to Oxyphotobacteria were noted in the samples. Moreover, there was a high percentage of unidentified cyanobacterial sequences, as well as the recently described Hillbrichtia pamiria gen. et sp. nov., present in one of the samples. Salinity, followed by Na and K concentrations, correlated positively with the composition and structure of Oxyphotobacteria on different taxonomic levels and the abundance of all bacterial ASVs. DISCUSSION: The study suggests that the investigated communities possibly host more novel and endemic species. Among the environmental factors, salinity influenced the Oxyphotobacteria communities the most. Overall, the microenvironmental factors, i.e. the conditions in each of the reservoirs seemed to have a larger impact on the diversity of microbial mats in Pamir than the “subregional” factors, related to altitude, mean annual air temperature and distance between these subregions. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10136773/ /pubmed/37125173 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1108694 Text en Copyright © 2023 Sandzewicz, Khomutovska, Łach, Kwiatowski, Niyatbekov, Suska-Malawska and Jasser. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Microbiology Sandzewicz, Małgorzata Khomutovska, Nataliia Łach, Łukasz Kwiatowski, Jan Niyatbekov, Toirbek Suska-Malawska, Małgorzata Jasser, Iwona Salinity matters the most: How environmental factors shape the diversity and structure of cyanobacterial mat communities in high altitude arid ecosystems |
title | Salinity matters the most: How environmental factors shape the diversity and structure of cyanobacterial mat communities in high altitude arid ecosystems |
title_full | Salinity matters the most: How environmental factors shape the diversity and structure of cyanobacterial mat communities in high altitude arid ecosystems |
title_fullStr | Salinity matters the most: How environmental factors shape the diversity and structure of cyanobacterial mat communities in high altitude arid ecosystems |
title_full_unstemmed | Salinity matters the most: How environmental factors shape the diversity and structure of cyanobacterial mat communities in high altitude arid ecosystems |
title_short | Salinity matters the most: How environmental factors shape the diversity and structure of cyanobacterial mat communities in high altitude arid ecosystems |
title_sort | salinity matters the most: how environmental factors shape the diversity and structure of cyanobacterial mat communities in high altitude arid ecosystems |
topic | Microbiology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10136773/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37125173 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1108694 |
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