Dataset Information

Environmental distribution of prokaryotic taxa.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The increasing availability of gene sequences of prokaryotic species in samples extracted from all kind of locations allows addressing the study of the influence of environmental patterns in prokaryotic biodiversity. We present a comprehensive study to address the potential existence of environmental preferences of prokaryotic taxa and the commonness of the specialist and generalist strategies. We also assessed the most significant environmental factors shaping the environmental distribution of taxa.

Results

We used 16S rDNA sequences from 3,502 sampling experiments in natural and artificial sources. These sequences were taxonomically assigned, and the corresponding samples were also classified into a hierarchical classification of environments. We used several statistical methods to analyze the environmental distribution of taxa. Our results indicate that environmental specificity is not very common at the higher taxonomic levels (phylum to family), but emerges at lower taxonomic levels (genus and species). The most selective environmental characteristics are those of animal tissues and thermal locations. Salinity is another very important factor for constraining prokaryotic diversity. On the other hand, soil and freshwater habitats are the less restrictive environments, harboring the largest number of prokaryotic taxa. All information on taxa, samples and environments is provided at the envDB online database, http://metagenomics.uv.es/envDB.

Conclusions

This is, as far as we know, the most comprehensive assessment of the distribution and diversity of prokaryotic taxa and their associations with different environments. Our data indicate that we are still far from characterizing prokaryotic diversity in any environment, except, perhaps, for human tissues such as the oral cavity and the vagina.

SUBMITTER: Tamames J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2850351 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Environmental distribution of prokaryotic taxa.

Tamames Javier J Abellán Juan José JJ Pignatelli Miguel M Camacho Antonio A Moya Andrés A

BMC microbiology 20100322

<h4>Background</h4>The increasing availability of gene sequences of prokaryotic species in samples extracted from all kind of locations allows addressing the study of the influence of environmental patterns in prokaryotic biodiversity. We present a comprehensive study to address the potential existence of environmental preferences of prokaryotic taxa and the commonness of the specialist and generalist strategies. We also assessed the most significant environmental factors shaping the environment ...[more]

PMID: 20307274

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Project description:The alpine grassland ecosystem is a biodiversity hotspot of plants on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, where rapid climate change is altering the patterns of plant biodiversity along elevational and seasonal gradients of environments. However, how belowground microbial biodiversity changes along elevational gradient during the growing season is not well understood yet. Here, we investigated the elevational distribution of soil prokaryotic communities by using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing along an elevational gradient between 3,200 and 4,200 m, and a seasonal gradient between June and September in the Qinghai-Tibetan alpine grasslands. First, we found soil prokaryotic diversity and community composition significantly shifted along the elevational gradient, mainly driven by soil temperature and moisture. Species richness did not show consistent elevational trends, while those of evenness declined with elevation. Copiotrophs and symbiotic diazotrophs declined with elevation, while oligotrophs and AOB increased, affected by temperature. Anaerobic or facultatively anaerobic bacteria and AOA were hump-shaped, mainly influenced by moisture. Second, seasonal patterns of community composition were mainly driven by aboveground biomass, precipitation, and soil temperature. The seasonal dynamics of community composition indicated that soil prokaryotic community, particularly Actinobacteria, was sensitive to short-term climate change, such as the monthly precipitation variation. At last, dispersal limitation consistently dominated the assembly process of soil prokaryotic communities along both elevational and seasonal gradients, especially for those of rare species, while the deterministic process of abundant species was relatively higher at drier sites and in drier July. The balance between deterministic and stochastic processes in abundant subcommunities might be strongly influenced by water conditions (precipitation/moisture). Our findings suggest that both elevation and season can alter the patterns of soil prokaryotic biodiversity in alpine grassland ecosystem of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which is a biodiversity hotspot and is experiencing rapid climate change. This work provides new insights into the response of soil prokaryotic communities to changes in elevation and season, and helps us understand the temporal and spatial variations in such climate change-sensitive regions.

Dataset Information

Environmental distribution of prokaryotic taxa.

Background

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Environmental distribution of prokaryotic taxa.

Similar Datasets

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