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Spatial Heterogeneity of Vibrio spp. in Sediments of Chinese Marginal Seas.

ABSTRACT: Vibrio spp. are ubiquitous marine bacteria with high metabolism flexibility and genome plasticity. Previous studies have revealed the dynamics of planktonic vibrios in relation to environmental forces, such as temperature and salinity. However, little is known about Vibrio ecology in benthic environments. Here, we elucidate the abundance, diversity, and spatial distribution of Vibrio spp. in sediments of the Chinese marginal seas, with a wide spatial range from north to south covering the Yellow Sea (YS), East China Sea (ECS), and South China Sea (SCS). Quantitative analysis showed that Vibrio spp. were most abundant in the SCS (?9.04?×?105 copies/g) compared to the YS (?1.00?×?105 copies/g) and ECS (?8.86?×?105 copies/g). Vibrio community compositions derived from Illumina sequencing of Vibrio-specific 16S rRNA genes varied significantly between sampling areas, which was reflected by a strong distance-decay pattern. The spatial distribution of Vibrio was governed by a joint effect of spatial and environmental factors (especially temperature, salinity, and SiO3 2-), and their respective pure effects explained only a small fraction of the community variation. Moreover, we identified the most prominent operational taxonomic units (OTUs) that were partitioned in these sea areas. Whereas Vibrionaceae OTU20 and Photobacterium lipolyticum were prevalent in the YS, Vibrio gigantis and Photobacterium piscicola, and P. piscicola, Photobacterium lutimaris, and Photobacterium alginatilyticum were prevalent in the ECS and SCS, respectively. Our study demonstrated clear spatial heterogeneity of Vibrio spp. in sediments of the Chinese marginal seas, laying a foundation for fully understanding the marine Vibrio ecology and the ecological roles of the species.IMPORTANCE Vibrio is an important component of natural marine microbial populations in terms of pathogenicity and roles in carbon cycling. Compared to the marine pelagic environment, our knowledge of the diversity and distribution pattern of Vibrio spp. in sediment is limited. Here, we show higher Vibrio abundance in Chinese marginal seas than in other studied sediments. There was a clear spatial differentiation of Vibrio abundance and community composition in different sea areas. The benthic Vibrio community displayed a strong distance-decay pattern across a wide spatial range, which was formed under the combined effects of spatial and environmental factors. These results provide deep insights into the ecological dynamics of Vibrio and its environmental controls, facilitating a more comprehensive understanding of the marine Vibrio ecology.

SUBMITTER: Wang X

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6498182 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Spatial Heterogeneity of Vibrio spp. in Sediments of Chinese Marginal Seas.

Wang Xiaolei X Liu Jiwen J Li Bei B Liang Jinchang J Sun Hao H Zhou Shun S Zhang Xiao-Hua XH

Applied and environmental microbiology 20190502 10

Vibrio spp. are ubiquitous marine bacteria with high metabolism flexibility and genome plasticity. Previous studies have revealed the dynamics of planktonic vibrios in relation to environmental forces, such as temperature and salinity. However, little is known about Vibrio ecology in benthic environments. Here, we elucidate the abundance, diversity, and spatial distribution of Vibrio spp. in sediments of the Chinese marginal seas, with a wide spatial range from north to sout ...[more]

PMID: 30877118

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Project description:Vibrio species are associated with human health and play important roles in the carbon cycle. The interest in the Vibrio ecology in marine pelagic environments has increased in recent years, and the correlations between the Vibrio community structure and various environmental factors have been demonstrated. However, the identification of planktonic Vibrio species and their relationship with particulate matter are unclear. Here, we elucidated the spatiotemporal dynamics of Vibrio diversity and in relation to environmental factors in the northern Chinese marginal seas, which feature complex and ever-changing environmental conditions. Vibrio abundance derived from quantitative PCR analysis was higher in summer (∼1.4 × 106 copies liter-1) than in winter (∼1.9 × 105 copies liter-1). Interestingly, the average amount of free-living (on a 0.22-μm-pore-size filter membrane) Vibrio was higher (∼3.89 times) than that of particle-associated Vibrio (on a 3-μm-pore-size filter membrane), making it likely that the preferential lifestyle of the planktonic Vibrio community was free living. Shifts in Vibrio community composition identified by high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the Vibrio-specific 16S rRNA gene were observed at both spatial and temporal scales, which were mainly driven by temperature, dissolved oxygen, ammonium, salinity, nitrite, and phosphate. The most prominent operational taxonomic units in summer were closely related to Vibrio campbellii and Vibrio caribbeanicus and shifted to those affiliated with Vibrio atlanticus in winter. Our study demonstrated abundant and diverse Vibrio populations in the northern Chinese marginal seas, contributing to a better understanding of their potential ecological roles in these ecosystems.IMPORTANCE The dynamics of Vibrio communities have been shown in many marine habitats that are close to land, including estuary or harbor areas. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of Vibrio populations in the northern Chinese marginal seas, spanning a wide spatial scale. We showed that the abundances of the Vibrio population in the present study were higher than those in most previously studied areas and that Vibrio species are more likely to adopt a free-living lifestyle. Moreover, our results expanded upon previous results by showing a clear shift in the dominant Vibrio species from summer to winter, which was mainly attributable to the reduction in the abundance of dominant species in summer. Overall, this work contributes to the understanding of the ecology of the Vibrio communities in the marginal seas.

Project description:Ecological evidence suggests that heterotrophic diazotrophs fueled by organic carbon respiration in sediments play an important role in marine nitrogen fixation. However, fundamental knowledge about the identities, abundance, diversity, biogeography, and controlling environmental factors of nitrogen-fixing communities in open ocean sediments is still elusive. Surprisingly, little is known also about nitrogen-fixing communities in sediments of the more research-accessible marginal seas. Here we report on an investigation of the environmental geochemistry and putative diazotrophic microbiota in the sediments of Bohai Sea, an eutrophic marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. Diverse and abundant nifH gene sequences were identified and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) were found to be the dominant putative nitrogen-fixing microbes. Community statistical analyses suggested bottom water temperature, bottom water chlorophyll a content (or the covarying turbidity) and sediment porewater Eh (or the covarying pH) as the most significant environmental factors controlling the structure and spatial distribution of the putative diazotrophic communities, while sediment Hg content, sulfide content, and porewater [Formula: see text]-Si content were identified as the key environmental factors correlated positively with the nifH gene abundance in Bohai Sea sediments. Comparative analyses between the Bohai Sea and the northern South China Sea (nSCS) identified a significant composition difference of the putative diazotrophic communities in sediments between the shallow-water (estuarine and nearshore) and deep-water (offshore and deep-sea) environments, and sediment porewater dissolved oxygen content, water depth and in situ temperature as the key environmental factors tentatively controlling the species composition, community structure, and spatial distribution of the marginal sea sediment nifH-harboring microbiota. This confirms the ecophysiological specialization and niche differentiation between the shallow-water and deep-water sediment diazotrophic communities and suggests that the in situ physical and geochemical conditions play a more important role than geographical contiguity in determining the community similarity of the diazotrophic microbiota in marginal sea sediments.

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Spatial Heterogeneity of Vibrio spp. in Sediments of Chinese Marginal Seas.

Publications

Spatial Heterogeneity of <i>Vibrio</i> spp. in Sediments of Chinese Marginal Seas.

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