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Termite Societies Promote the Taxonomic and Functional Diversity of Archaeal Communities in Mound Soils

Recent studies involving microbial communities in termite mounds have been more focused on bacteria and fungi with little attention given to archaea, which play significant roles in nutrient cycling. Thus, we aimed at characterizing the archaeal taxonomic and functional diversity in two termite moun...

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Autores principales: Wakung’oli, Monde, Amoo, Adenike Eunice, Enagbonma, Ben Jesuorsemwen, Babalola, Olubukola Oluranti
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7345372/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32630446
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology9060136
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author Wakung’oli, Monde
Amoo, Adenike Eunice
Enagbonma, Ben Jesuorsemwen
Babalola, Olubukola Oluranti
author_facet Wakung’oli, Monde
Amoo, Adenike Eunice
Enagbonma, Ben Jesuorsemwen
Babalola, Olubukola Oluranti
author_sort Wakung’oli, Monde
collection PubMed
description Recent studies involving microbial communities in termite mounds have been more focused on bacteria and fungi with little attention given to archaea, which play significant roles in nutrient cycling. Thus, we aimed at characterizing the archaeal taxonomic and functional diversity in two termite mound soils using the shotgun sequencing method with the assumption that termite activities could promote archaeal diversity. Our findings showed that termite mound soils have archaeal groups that are taxonomically different from their surrounding soils, with Euryarchaeota, Korarchaeota, and Nanoarchaeota being predominant while Thaumarchaeota and Crenarchaeota were predominant in the surrounding soils. Additionally, the observed nutrient pathways: phosphorus, nitrogen, and sulfur were all significantly more predominant in termite mound soils than in their comparative surrounding soils. Alpha diversity showed that archaea were not significantly different within termite mound soils and the surrounding soils. The beta diversity revealed significant differences in the archaeal taxonomic composition and their functional categories between the termite mounds and surrounding soils. Our canonical correspondence analysis revealed that the distribution of archaeal communities was likely dependent on the soil properties. Our results suggested that termite activities may promote the diversity of archaea; with some of our sequences grouped as unclassified archaea, there is a need for further research to unveil their identity.
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spelling pubmed-73453722020-07-09 Termite Societies Promote the Taxonomic and Functional Diversity of Archaeal Communities in Mound Soils Wakung’oli, Monde Amoo, Adenike Eunice Enagbonma, Ben Jesuorsemwen Babalola, Olubukola Oluranti Biology (Basel) Article Recent studies involving microbial communities in termite mounds have been more focused on bacteria and fungi with little attention given to archaea, which play significant roles in nutrient cycling. Thus, we aimed at characterizing the archaeal taxonomic and functional diversity in two termite mound soils using the shotgun sequencing method with the assumption that termite activities could promote archaeal diversity. Our findings showed that termite mound soils have archaeal groups that are taxonomically different from their surrounding soils, with Euryarchaeota, Korarchaeota, and Nanoarchaeota being predominant while Thaumarchaeota and Crenarchaeota were predominant in the surrounding soils. Additionally, the observed nutrient pathways: phosphorus, nitrogen, and sulfur were all significantly more predominant in termite mound soils than in their comparative surrounding soils. Alpha diversity showed that archaea were not significantly different within termite mound soils and the surrounding soils. The beta diversity revealed significant differences in the archaeal taxonomic composition and their functional categories between the termite mounds and surrounding soils. Our canonical correspondence analysis revealed that the distribution of archaeal communities was likely dependent on the soil properties. Our results suggested that termite activities may promote the diversity of archaea; with some of our sequences grouped as unclassified archaea, there is a need for further research to unveil their identity. MDPI 2020-06-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7345372/ /pubmed/32630446 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology9060136 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wakung’oli, Monde
Amoo, Adenike Eunice
Enagbonma, Ben Jesuorsemwen
Babalola, Olubukola Oluranti
Termite Societies Promote the Taxonomic and Functional Diversity of Archaeal Communities in Mound Soils
title Termite Societies Promote the Taxonomic and Functional Diversity of Archaeal Communities in Mound Soils
title_full Termite Societies Promote the Taxonomic and Functional Diversity of Archaeal Communities in Mound Soils
title_fullStr Termite Societies Promote the Taxonomic and Functional Diversity of Archaeal Communities in Mound Soils
title_full_unstemmed Termite Societies Promote the Taxonomic and Functional Diversity of Archaeal Communities in Mound Soils
title_short Termite Societies Promote the Taxonomic and Functional Diversity of Archaeal Communities in Mound Soils
title_sort termite societies promote the taxonomic and functional diversity of archaeal communities in mound soils
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7345372/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32630446
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology9060136
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