Hu Jincheng, Chen Tianyi, Lian Chun-Ang, Wang Li, Zhuang Weiqin, Yu Ke
School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
Environmental Microbiome and Innovative Genomics Laboratory, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2025 May 23;109(1):124. doi: 10.1007/s00253-025-13498-y.
The salt lake ecosystem, characterized by extreme environmental gradients, harbors microbes that uniquely adapt to high salt stress through natural selection. However, how abiotic and biotic factors shape the microbial community assembly in Yuncheng Salt Lakes remains unclear. Here, we investigated the assembly processes and meta co-occurrence patterns of microbiota in both water and sediment sampled from 14 distinct wide range of salinity lakes in the Shanxi Yuncheng area, Midwest of China, using 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA gene sequencing technology combined with multivariate ecological and statistical methods. Habitat differentiation led to the differences in microbial diversity, co-occurrence patterns, and community assembly between sedimentary and planktonic communities. Sedimentary prokaryotes were more shaped by deterministic processes than planktonic bacterial communities. Salinity was a major abiotic factor influencing the balance between stochastic and deterministic processes in both sediment and water. Enhanced microbial interactions within sediments exhibited a more prominent impact in shaping community assembly, as indicated by the stronger association between network-inferred species and prokaryotic βNTI. Moreover, we revealed significant differences in how core species concerning βNTI responded to biotic and abiotic factors. Our findings elucidated the ecological process underlying microbial communities in Yuncheng Salt Lakes and shed light on the mechanism of microorganisms to maintain community complexity and diversity in the extreme environment. KEY POINTS: • Sedimentary prokaryotes were more shaped by deterministic processes than planktonic prokaryotic communities. • Salinity was a major factor influencing the balance between stochastic and deterministic process. • Inter-domain and intra-domain symbiotic interactions within sedimentary communities represent key biotic factors influencing their community assembly.
盐湖生态系统具有极端的环境梯度，其中蕴藏着通过自然选择独特地适应高盐胁迫的微生物。然而，非生物和生物因素如何塑造运城盐湖中的微生物群落组装仍不清楚。在此，我们利用16S rRNA和18S rRNA基因测序技术，结合多变量生态学和统计方法，研究了从中国中西部山西运城地区14个不同盐度范围的湖泊采集的水和沉积物中微生物群的组装过程和元共现模式。生境分化导致了沉积群落和浮游群落之间微生物多样性、共现模式和群落组装的差异。沉积原核生物比浮游细菌群落更受确定性过程的影响。盐度是影响沉积物和水中随机过程和确定性过程平衡的主要非生物因素。沉积物中增强的微生物相互作用在塑造群落组装方面表现出更显著的影响，如网络推断物种与原核生物βNTI之间更强的关联所示。此外，我们揭示了核心物种关于βNTI对生物和非生物因素的响应存在显著差异。我们的研究结果阐明了运城盐湖中微生物群落的生态过程，并揭示了微生物在极端环境中维持群落复杂性和多样性的机制。要点：•沉积原核生物比浮游原核生物群落更受确定性过程的影响。•盐度是影响随机过程和确定性过程平衡的主要因素。•沉积群落内的域间和域内共生相互作用是影响其群落组装的关键生物因素。
