divergence-root-microbiota-different-habitats-based-on-weighted

Divergence of Root Microbiota in Different Habitats based on Weighted Correlation Networks

The root microbiome plays an important role in plant growth and environmental adaptation. Network analysis is an important tool for studying communities, ...

Guizhou Normal University

Chinese liquor is one of the world's oldest distilled alcoholic beverages and an important commercial fermented product in China. The Chinese liquor fermentation process has three stages: making  (the starter), stacking fermentation on the ground, and liquor fermentation in pits. We investigated the bacterial diversity of Maotai and Guotai  and liquor fermentation using high-throughput sequencing of the V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene. A total of 70,297 sequences were obtained from the  samples and clustered into 17 phyla. The composition of the bacterial communities in the  from these two soy sauce aroma-style Chinese liquors was the same, although some bacterial species changed in abundance. Between the  and liquor fermentation samples, 12 bacterial phyla increased. The abundance of  and  increased in the liquor fermentation. This study has used high-throughput sequencing to provide new insights into the bacterial composition of the Chinese liquor Daqu and fermentation. Similarities in the distribution of bacteria in the soy sauce aroma-style Chinese liquors  suggest that the abundance of bacteria might be generally concerned to other liquor.

Analysis of the Bacterial Communities in Two Liquors of Soy Sauce Aroma as Revealed by High-Throughput Sequencing of the 16S rRNA V4 Hypervariable Region.

Karst topography is formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks, such as limestone and dolomite. In soils of such a landform, excessive contents of exchangeable calcium seriously limit the growth of vegetations. Researches have proved that rhizosphere microorganisms and endophytes help host plants to adapt to various adverse environments. The adaptive capacity of plants that grow in adverse environment with salt, drought, thermal and heavy metal stresses partially or completely comes from symbiotic microorganisms. By using the high-throughput amplicon sequencing, the bacterial community structures in soil with high calcium contents and roots and leaves of Cochlearia henryi that is commonly seen in karst area were analyzed. The bacteria community structures in these three compartments showed obvious differences. This indicates that C. henryi, which is adaptive to high calcium stress, selectively co-exists with specific bacteria. Although the bacteria community structures in these three compartments differed significantly, there were 73 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) shared by karst soils as well as roots and leaves of C. henryi. The phylogenetic diversity of these 73 OTUs differed significantly from that of overall OTUs detected. There were also obvious differences in KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathways and abundance values between the 73 OTUs and overall bacterial communities. A large number of OTUs shared by the karst soils, roots and leaves of C. henryi had close genetic relationship with known stress-resistant bacterial strains. Our results showed that the functional bacteria can be predicted by exploring core bacteria, bacteria shared by soils, adaptable plant roots and leaves. This information will potentially accelerate studies on natural microbial communities which can promote the adaptive capacity of host plants to high calcium stress, and will be valuable for finding microbial strains for field application in karst topography.

Specialized core bacteria associate with plants adapted to adverse environment with high calcium contents.

The present study aimed at systematically investigating the endophytic communities of dominant plants in the karst ecosystem. Soil and plant materials were collected and after sequencing of the 16 s RNA, the diversity and abundance of the endophytic community structures in leaves were examined. Our results showed that abundant and diverse endogenous bacteria were associated with the leaves of common dominant plants living in the karst ecological environment. Notably, common traits and significant differences in the endophytic community structures were recorded among different plant species with different leaf grown in soils with different calcium contents. These observations implied that plants may adopt different strategies to adapt to the karst ecological environment. In addition, the endophytic bacteria associated with the leaves may be involved in different physiological strategies used by the plants to adapt to the karst ecological environment. These findings provide new avenues for developing microbial agents that could be suitable for the karst ecological environment and will provide sustainable solutions for improving the ability of plants to adapt to karst special adversities, and thus for karst geomorphological environmental protection and agricultural development.

Ximin Zhang

Guizhou Normal University

Divergence of Root Microbiota in Different Habitats based on Weighted Correlation Networks