Diverse Bacterial Communities From Qaidam Basin of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau: Insights Into Variations in Bacterial Diversity Across Different Regions

Abstract

The Qaidam Basin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a cold, hyper-arid desert that presents extreme challenges to microbial communities. As little is known about variations between surface and subsurface microbial communities, high-throughput DNA sequencing was used in this study to profile bacterial communities of the soil samples collected at different depths in three regions in the Qaidam Basin. The α-diversity indices (Chao, Shannon, and Simpson) indicated that bacterial abundance and diversity were higher in the east and the high-elevation regions compared to the west region. In general, Firmicutes was dominant in the west region, while Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria were dominant in the east and the high-elevation regions. The structure of the bacterial communities differed greatly across regions, being strongly correlated with total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) content. The differences in bacterial communities between the surface and the subsurface soil samples were smaller than the differences across the regions. Network analyses of environmental factors and bacterial genera indicated significant positive correlations in all regions. Overall, our study provides evidence that TOC and TN are the best predictors of both surface and subsurface bacterial communities across the Qaidam Basin. This study concludes that the bacterial community structure is influenced by both the spatial distance and the local environment, but environmental factors are the primary drivers of bacterial spatial patterns in the Qaidam Basin.

Microbial diversity and adaptive strategies in the Mars‐like Qaidam Basin, North Tibetan Plateau, China

“…Soil microbial communities from different regions in the Qaidam Basin have recently been characterized through culture‐dependent and 16S rRNA gene‐based approaches (Huang et al, 2018; Xing et al, 2019; Zhang et al, 2020). Firmicutes , Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were identified as the dominant bacterial phyla (Zhang et al, 2020), and some environmental factors, such as total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN) and pH, were regarded as driving factors for spatial differences in microbial communities across different regions (Xing et al, 2019; Zhang et al, 2020). Despite these advances in the diversity and ecology of microbial communities in the Qaidam Basin, our understanding of their genomic information, functional potential and adaptive strategies remains very limited.…”

Transcriptional and biochemical analyses of Planomicrobium strain AX6 from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China, reveal hydrogen peroxide scavenging potential

“…The potential scavenging ability of H 2 O 2 toxicity in the Planomicrobium strain AX6 recovered from desert soil in the Qaidam Basin, Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China, was carried out here by studying its growth and transcriptional profiling in response to H 2 O 2 stress. This area is characterized by low temperature, oxygen level, and high radiation [ 13 , 52 ], which directly cause light-induced damage to organisms, and forms an environment with high oxidation intensity [ 53 ]. In the higher H 2 O 2 concentration, Planomicrobium strain AX6 showed a high survival rate coupled with a strong oxidative stress response.…”

“…Coping with oxidative stress by activating antioxidant defense systems is among the vital functions of microbes [1,11,12]. The Qaidam Basin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a cold hyper-arid desert at an altitude of more than 4,500 m [13]. Diverse bacterial communities dominate these high-elevation cold-desert ecosystems, frequently subjected to stressful conditions like low atmospheric oxygen content, excessive ultraviolet (UV) radiation, low air temperatures, and low nutrient availability [13][14][15].…”

Yeast Diversity in the Qaidam Basin Desert in China with the Description of Five New Yeast Species

“…This area harbors Mars-like extreme environments, e.g., hyper-arid, salt deposits, and high-UV, and similar mineral compositions and geomorphological structures to terrains on Mars [ 12 , 35 ]. The geology, geophysiology, and chemistry of the Qaidam Basin have been well characterized [ 36 , 37 , 38 ], and microbial diversities focusing on bacteria and archaea in different parts of this area using culture-independent methods have been performed in recent years [ 39 , 40 , 41 ]. However, the fungal diversity in the Qaidam Basin remains to be revealed.…”