Bacterial diversity in sediments of the eutrophic Guanting Reservoir, China, estimated by analyses of 16S rDNA sequence

Abstract

The bacterial diversity in different layers of sediment of the eutrophic Guanting Reservoir (China) was investigated using molecular ecological techniques. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified 16S rDNA showed presence of different bacterial communities across depths of sediments. The trend was consistent with sedimentological layers as characterized by physical and chemical parameters. Sediments were sampled at the 4–6, 34–36, and 69–72 cm depths to represent upper, middle and lower layers and used to construct three 16S rDNA clone libraries. Out of a total of 760 positive clones obtained from the three sediment layers, 148 rDNA types were identified by amplified 16S rDNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) and grouped into 42 clusters or single lineages at the similarity of 70%. We used 16S rDNA sequencing to classify 60 clones representing different ARDRA clusters into nine phyla: Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, Gemmatimonadetes, Nitrospirae, Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia. The diversity and distribution of rDNA types across depths were much different from the chemical profile of the sediment and pollution history of the reservoir.