Response of Archaeal Community Structure to Environmental Changes in Lakes on the Tibetan Plateau,Northwestern China |
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Authors: | Hongchen Jiang Hailiang Dong Shicai Deng Bingsong Yu Qiuyuan Huang Qinglong Wu |
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Institution: | 1. Geomicrobiology Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, School of Earth Sciences and Resources , China University of Geosciences , Beijing, 100083, China;2. Geomicrobiology Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, School of Earth Sciences and Resources , China University of Geosciences , Beijing, 100083, China;3. Department of Geology , Miami University , Oxford, OH, 45056;4. Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology Chinese Academy of Sciences , Nanjing, China , 210008 |
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Abstract: | To study how archaeal community responds to environmental changes, we investigated archaeal community structures in waters of three Tibetan saline lakes in northwestern China (Gahai, Xiaochaidan, and Charhan Lakes) with 16S rRNA gene phylogenetic analysis. Temperature, pH, and water chemistry (major anions and cations) of the lakes were measured. Three archaeal clone libraries were constructed with a total of 297 sequences. Incorporating our previous data obtained from other lakes on the Tibetan Plateau, we performed statistical analyses to identify dominant environmental parameters that could account for the observed variations in archaeal community structure. We concluded that salinity and water chemistry (Na and bicarbonate concentration in particular) played an important role in shaping archaeal community. In particular, the relative abundance of archaeal 16S rRNA genes affiliated with the Halobacteriales of the Euryarchaeota increased with salinity, whereas that of crenarchaeotal 16S rRNA gene sequences showed the opposite trend. Crenarchaeotal 16S rRNA gene sequences were retrieved from lake waters with salinity up to 28.3%. These results have important implications for our understanding of response of archaeal community to environmental changes in high-altitude lake ecosystems. |
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Keywords: | Archaea Crenarchaeota environmental changes 16S rRNA gene Tibetan lakes |
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