Culture-dependent and -independent methods revealed an abundant myxobacterial community shaped by other bacteria and pH in Dinghushan acidic soils

Abstract

Myxobacteria are one of the most promising secondary metabolites producers. However, they are difficult to isolate and cultivate. To obtain more myxobacteria and know the effects of environmental factors on myxobacterial community, we characterized myxobacterial communities in Dinghushan acidic forest soils of pH 3.6–4.5 with culture-dependent and -independent techniques, and analyzed environmental factors shaping myxobacterial communities. A total of 21 myxobacteria were isolated using standard cultivation methods, including eleven isolates of Corallococcus , nine isolates of Myxococcus and one isolate of Archangium , and contained three potential novel species. In addition, a total of 67 unknown myxobacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained using high-throughput sequencing method. The abundance of Myxococcales account for 0.9–2.2% of bacterial communities, and Sorangium is the most abundant genus (60.1%) in Myxococcales . Correlation analysis demonstrated that bacterial diversity and soil pH are the key factors shaping myxobacterial community. These results revealed an abundant myxobacterial community which is shaped by other bacteria and pH in Dinghushan acidic forest soils.

Comparative genomics of Myxococcus and Pyxidicoccus, including the description of four novel species: Myxococcus guangdongensis sp. nov., Myxococcus qinghaiensis sp. nov., Myxococcus dinghuensis sp. nov., and Pyxidicoccus xibeiensis sp. nov.

“…According to the latest taxonomic proposal, myxobacteria have been reclassified as the phylum Myxococcota , comprising the four orders Myxococcales , Polyangiales , Nannocystales , and Haliangiales , seven families, and 19 genera ( Waite et al, 2020 ). The three genera Myxococcus , Pyxidicoccus , and Corallococcus of the family Myxococcaceae have often been isolated from various habitats, and their 16S rRNA genes show highly homologous ( Mohr et al, 2016 , 2017 ; Livingstone et al, 2017 ; Wang et al, 2020 ). Compared with the 98.65% of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, the 98.7% of gyrB gene sequence similarity is suitable as the threshold for species boundaries of the three genera above ( Liu et al, 2021 ).…”

Concepts and conjectures concerning predatory performance of myxobacteria

“…Abiotic factors such as pH and certain alkaline earth metals influence myxobacteria populations in soils and compost manure ( Zhang et al, 2013 ; Wang C. et al, 2020 ; Zhou et al, 2020 ; Dai et al, 2021 ). Increased actinorhodin production by Streptomyces coelicolor during co-culture conditions with M. xanthus has been associated with competitive acquisition of iron in soils ( Perez et al, 2011 ; Lee et al, 2020 ), and copper detoxification has been observed to improve M. xanthus predation of Sinorhizobium meliloti ( Contreras-Moreno et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Microbial community diversity is the most consistently observed environmental factor influencing myxobacteria abundance and diversity. Bacteria in ecological studies from numerous orders have been positively correlated to interact with myxobacteria including Anaerolineales , Burkholderiales , Cellvibrionales , Chitinophagales , Cytophagales , Flavobacteriales , Hyphomicrobiales, Ktedonobacterales , Pseudomonadales , Rhodospirillales , and Sphingomonadales ( Wang C. et al, 2020 ; Wang W. et al, 2020 ; Zhou et al, 2020 ; Dai et al, 2021 ). Often attributed to predatory preference of myxobacteria, connections between population-based ecological studies and predatory performance of myxobacteria remain unclear, and few environmental studies have provided genus-level correlations between myxobacteria and potential prey.…”

Diversity and Functional Distribution Characteristics of Myxobacterial Communities in the Rhizosphere of Tamarix chinensis Lour in Ebinur Lake Wetland, China

“…Furthermore, the type of fecal samples was reported as the main factor affecting the myxobacterial community structure in different fecal samples. Wang et al [ 9 ] studied the diversity of myxobacteria in Dinghushan by combining high-throughput sequencing and culture methods and found that the biological factors affecting the diversity of Dinghushan myxobacteria were mainly soil bacterial diversity, while the key abiotic factors were soil pH and the available potassium content. Ye et al [ 10 ] employed a Corallococcus sp.…”