Bacterial Diversity and Community Composition Distribution in Cold-Desert Habitats of Qinghai—Tibet Plateau, China

Wei Zhang, Ali Bahadur, Wasim Sajjad, Gaosen Zhang, Fahad Nasir, Binglin Zhang, Xiukun Wu , Guangxiu Liu,* , Tuo Chen

Microorganisms 2021,9(2):262, https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9020262

Abstract: Bacterial communities in cold-desert habitats play an important ecological role. However, the variation in bacterial diversity and community composition of the cold-desert ecosystem in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau remains unknown. To fill this scientific gape, Illumina MiSeq sequencing was performed on 15 soil samples collected from different cold-desert habitats, including human-dis-turbed, vegetation coverage, desert land, and sand dune. The abundance-based coverage estimator, Shannon, and Chao indices showed that the bacterial diversity and abundance of the cold-desert were high. A significant variation reported in the bacterial diversity and community composition across the study area. Proteobacteria accounted for the largest proportion (12.4–55.7%) of all se-quences, followed by Actinobacteria (9.2–39.7%), Bacteroidetes (1.8–21.5%), and Chloroflexi (2.7–12.6%). Furthermore, unclassified genera dominated in human-disturbed habitats. The community profiles of  GeErMu,  HongLiangHe,  and  CuoNaHu  sites were different  and  metagenomic  bi-omarkers were higher (22) in CuoNaHu sites. Among the soil physicochemical variables, the total nitrogen and electric conductivity significantly influenced the bacterial community structure. In conclusion, this study provides information regarding variation in diversity and composition of bacterial communities and elucidates the association between bacterial community structures and soil physicochemical variables in cold-desert habitats of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau.
文章链接：https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348828575_Bacterial_Diversity_and_Community_Composition_Distribution_in_Cold-Desert_Habitats_of_Qinghai-Tibet_Plateau_China