Abstract
Actinobacteria are known for their metabolic potential of producing diverse secondary metabolites such as antibiotics. Actinobacteria also playimportant roles in biogeochemical cycling and how soils develop. However, little is known about the effect of the vegetation type on the actinobacterial community structures in soils from arid regions. For these reasons, we have analyzed the actinobacterial communities of five types of ecosystem (tree grove, shrub, meadow, desert, and farm) in the Heihe river basin. Using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing, we found 11 classes of Actinobacteria, with dominant classes of Actinobacteria (36.2%), Thermoleophilia (28.3%), Acidimicrobiia (19.4%). Five classes, 15 orders, 20 families and 36 genera were present in all samples. The dominant generalist genera were Gaiella, Solirubrobacter, Nocardioides, Mycobacterium, and Pseudonocardia. The actinobacterial community structures were significantly affected by the environment and vegetation type. The diversity of the actinobacterial community in the desert ecosystem was high, and this ecosystem harbored the highest proportion of unclassified sequences, representing rare Actinobacteria. Functional metagenomic prediction, using PICRUSt, indicated that Actinobacteria play an important role in nitrogen cycling in both desert and cultivated farm ecosystems.
Highlights
The phylum Actinobacteria is a primary eubacterial phylogenetic clade containing diverse grampositive bacteria (Sun et al, 2010) that belong to several classes such as the Acidimicrobiia, Actinobacteria, and Thermoleophila
The aims of this study were to: (1) investigate actinobacterial communities in soils of the Heihe River basin with samples taken from tree groves, shrubland, meadows, desert and farmland, (2) assess any relation of the vegetation gradient to the actinobacterial communities, and (3) assess to what extent metabolic pathways differ among the Actinobacteria found in the soils of these different habitats
Our analyses indicate that soil vegetation systems significantly influence the composition of actinobacterial communities in the Heihe river basin
Summary
The phylum Actinobacteria is a primary eubacterial phylogenetic clade containing diverse grampositive bacteria (Sun et al, 2010) that belong to several classes such as the Acidimicrobiia, Actinobacteria, and Thermoleophila. Actinobacteria are typically dominant soil microbes (Hill et al, 2011) They are important for the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and several other elements in the soil (Goodfellow and Williams, 1983; Holmalahti et al, 1994; Hill et al, 2011). As saprophytes, they produce a range of extracellular hydrolytic enzymes which can degrade animal and plant polymers, including lignin, cellulose, chitin, and other organic compounds (Eisenlord and Zak, 2010). A better understanding of the diversity and distribution of Actinobacteria can provide insight into microbial ecology and guide the discovery of novel bioactivities such as new antibiotics (Beattie et al, 2011; Hill et al, 2011)
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