Abstract
BackgroundGanzi Prefecture in Western China is situated geographically at the transition regions between Tibetan Plateau and Sichuan Basin in a highly tectonically active boundary area between the India and Eurasia plates. The region hosts various hot springs that span a wide range of temperature from 30 to 98 °C and are located at high altitude (up to 4200 m above sea level) in the region of large geothermal anomalies and active Xianshuihe slip-fault that has been active since Holocene. The site represents a biodiversity reservoir for thermophiles, yet their diversity and relationship to geochemical parameters are largely unknown. In the present work, bacterial diversity and community structure in 14 hot springs of Ganzi were investigated using Illumina MiSeq sequencing.ResultsBacterial community compositions were evidently distinct among the 14 hot springs, and the bacterial communities in hot springs were majorly abundant in phyla Aquificae, Cyanobacteria and Proteobacteria. Both clustering and PCoA analysis suggested the existence of four bacterial community patterns in these hot springs. Temperature contributed to shaping bacterial community structure of hot springs as revealed by correlation analysis. Abundant unassigned-genus sequences detected in this study strongly implied the presence of novel genera or genetic resources in these hot springs.ConclusionThe diversity of hot springs of Ganzi prefecture in Western Sichuan, China is evidently shaped by temperature. Interestingly disproportionally abundant unassigned-genus sequences detected in this study show indicate potential of novel genera or phylotypes. We hypothesize that frequent earthquakes and rapidly changing environment might have contributed to evolution of these potentially new lineages. Overall, this study provided first insight into the bacterial diversity of hot springs located in Western Sichuan, China and its comparison with other similar communities worldwide.
Highlights
Ganzi Prefecture in Western China is situated geographically at the transition regions between Tibetan Plateau and Sichuan Basin in a highly tectonically active boundary area between the India and Eurasia plates
All sites except Lotus lake were situated on or in the close vicinity of Xianshuihe fault (Fig. 1, Additional file 1: Table S1) that experienced numerous earthquakes in last 300 years resulting in emergence, disappearance and radical changes of numerous hot springs in the area [11]
Lotus lake was situated in the proximity of smaller fault in a tectonically active area that experienced strong earthquakes in 1955 and 2001 (Fig. 1, Additional file 1: Table S1)
Summary
Ganzi Prefecture in Western China is situated geographically at the transition regions between Tibetan Plateau and Sichuan Basin in a highly tectonically active boundary area between the India and Eurasia plates. The hot springs around the world have been extensively studied, in Yellowstone National Park (YNP), USA [1], Japan [2], United States Great Basin [3], Iceland [4], and Malaysia [5]. These sites possess diverse physicochemical properties and biological species. In China, similar studies have been conducted on hot springs, primarily at Tengchong County, Yunnan Province [6, 7] and Tibetan Plateau [8]. Similarities could be found between different geographical fields, the microbial composition usually differs due to the great impact of physicochemical conditions, such as temperature and pH, on
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