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Characterization of the prokaryotic diversity through a stratigraphic permafrost core profile from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

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Abstract

Permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is one of the most sensitive regions to climate warming, thus characterizing its microbial diversity and community composition may be important for understanding their potential responses to climate changes. Here, we investigated the prokaryotic diversity in a 10-m-long permafrost core from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis targeting the 16S rRNA gene. We detected 191 and 17 bacterial and archaeal phylotypes representing 14 and 2 distinct phyla, respectively. Proteobacteria was the dominant bacterial phylum, while archaeal communities were characterized by a preponderance of Thaumarchaeota. Some of prokaryotic phylotypes were closely related to characterized species involved in carbon and nitrogen cycles, including nitrogen fixation, methane oxidation and nitrification. However, the majority of the phylotypes were only distantly related to known taxa at order or species level, suggesting the potential of novel diversity. Additionally, both bacterial α diversity and community composition changed significantly with sampling depth, where these communities mainly distributed according to core horizons. Arthrobacter-related phylotypes presented at high relative abundance in two active layer soils, while the deeper permafrost soils were dominated by Psychrobacter-related clones. Changes in bacterial community composition were correlated with most measured soil variables, such as carbon and nitrogen contents, pH, and conductivity.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to other members from Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences for successful field work. This research was supported by funding from the National Basic Research Program (2012CB026105), National Natural Science Foundation (31170482, 31300445, 31370450), PhD Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education (20130211120005), the Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2013M540780, 2014T70949), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China (LZUJBKY-2011-119) and State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SKLFSE200901).

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    1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cell Activities and Stress Adaptations, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

      Weigang Hu, Qi Zhang, Tian Tian, Dingyao Li, Gang Cheng, Jing Mu, Lizhe An & Huyuan Feng

    2. State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering (SKLFSE), Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (CAREERI), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

      Qingbai Wu & Fujun Niu

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    The soil samples used in this study were collected in the state-owned land which is open for scientific research. No specified permissions are required for this sampling site, which is not natural reserve and did not involve endangered or protected species.

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    Communicated by A. Oren.

    W. Hu and Q. Zhang contributed equally to this work.

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    Fig. S1 Rarefaction curves for combined Bacteria and Archaea clone libraries (DOCX 90 kb)

    Fig. S2 Phylogenetic analysis of Proteobacteria-related phylotypes (DOCX 201 kb)

    792_2016_825_MOESM3_ESM.docx

    Fig. S3 Phylogenetic analysis of bacterial phylotypes grouping with the Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and an unclassified phylum (DOCX 123 kb)

    Fig. S4 Phylogenetic analysis of bacterial phylotypes grouping with other phyla (DOCX 138 kb)

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    Hu, W., Zhang, Q., Tian, T. et al. Characterization of the prokaryotic diversity through a stratigraphic permafrost core profile from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Extremophiles 20, 337–349 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-016-0825-y

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