Background
The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau represents one of the most important component of the terrestrial ecosystem and a particularly vulnerable region, which harbouring complex and diverse microbiota. The knowledge about their underground microorganisms have largely been studied, but the characteristics of rhizosphere microbiota, particularly archaeal communities remains unclear.
Results
High-throughput Illumina sequencing was used to investigate the rhizosphere archaeal communities of two native alpine trees (
Picea crassifolia
and
Populus szechuanica
) living on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The archaeal community structure in rhizospheres significantly differed from that in bulk soil. Thaumarchaeota was the dominant archaeal phylum in all soils tested (92.46–98.01%), while its relative abundance in rhizospheres were significantly higher than that in bulk soil. Ammonium nitrogen, soil organic matter, available phosphorus and pH were significantly correlated with the archaeal community structure, and the deterministic processes dominated the assembly of archaeal communities across all soils. In addition, the network structures of the archaeal community in the rhizosphere were less complex than they were in the bulk soil, and an unclassified archaeal group (Unclassified_k_norank) was identified as the keystone species in all archaeal networks.
Conclusions
Overall, the structure, assembly and co-occurrence patterns of archaeal communities are significantly affected by the presence of roots of alpine trees living on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. This study provides new insights into our understanding of archaeal communities in vulnerable ecosystems.
Background: Archaea are considered to be an important component of complex microbiomes, which play vital roles in mediating soil biogeochemical processes. However, little is known about the ecology of archaeal communities in the rhizosphere, especially regarding their assembly and co-occurrence patterns. Results: Here, we used high-throughput Illumina sequencing to investigate the community variations of archaea between the rhizosphere and bulk soil collected from two native alpine tree species of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Thaumarchaeota was the dominant archaeal phylum in all soils tested, while archaeal community structures in the rhizosphere significantly differed from that in the bulk soil. Soil ammonium nitrogen, soil organic matter, available phosphorus and pH were significantly correlated with the archaeal community structure, and the deterministic processes dominated the assembly of archaeal communities across all soils. In addition, the network structures of the archaeal community in the rhizosphere were less complex than they were in the bulk soil, and an unclassified archaeal group (Unclassified_k_norank) was identified as the keystone species in all archaeal networks. Conclusions: Collectively, our findings suggest the structural variability, assembly processes, and co-occurrence patterns of archaeal communities in the rhizosphere of the the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which further deepens our ecological understanding of the archaeal microbiome.
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