High-throughput sequencing and analysis of microbial communities in the mangrove swamps along the coast of Beibu Gulf in Guangxi, China

Abstract

Mangrove swamp is one of the world’s richest and most productive marine ecosystems. This ecosystem also has a great ecological importance, but is highly susceptible to anthropogenic disturbances. The balance of mangrove ecosystem depends largely on the microbial communities in mangrove sediments. Thus, understanding how the mangrove microbial communities respond to spatial differences is essential for more accurate assessment of mangrove ecosystem health. To this end, we performed the first medium-distance (150 km) research on the biogeographic distribution of mangrove microbial communities. The hypervariable regions of 16S rRNA gene was sequenced by Illumina to compare the microbial communities in mangrove sediments collected from six locations (i.e. Zhenzhu harbor, Yuzhouping, Maowei Sea, Qinzhou harbor, Beihai city and Shankou) along the coastline of Beibu Gulf in Guangxi province, China. Collectively, Proteobacteria , Bacteroidetes , Chloroflexi , Actinobacteria , Parvarchaeota , Acidobacteria and Cyanobacteria were the predominant phyla in the mangrove sediments of this area. At genus level, the heat map of microbial communities reflected similarities between study sites and was in agreement with their biogeographic characteristics. Interestingly, the genera Desulfococcus , Arcobacter , Nitrosopumilus and Sulfurimonas showed differences in abundance between study sites. Furthermore, the principal component analysis (PCA) and unweighted UniFrac cluster tree of beta diversity were used to study the biogeographic diversity of the microbial communities. Relatively broader variation of microbial communities was found in Beihai city and Qinzhou harbour, suggesting that environmental condition and historical events may play an important role in shaping the bacterial communities as well. This is the first report on medium-distance range distribution of bacteria in the mangrove swamp ecosystem. Our data is valuable for monitoring and evaluation of the impact of human activity on mangrove habitats from the perspective of microbiome.

Insights on aquatic microbiome of the Indian Sundarbans mangrove areas

“…Bacteria under this group are consisted of both copiotrophic and oligotrophic members with higher abundance in oligotrophic marine environments [50,51]. Their presence in mangrove estuary regions is well documented [52][53][54]. As marine Actinobacteria are the richest sources of secondary metabolites thus, have been well reported as potential sources of bioactive compounds [55].…”

Identification of Chemical Profiles and Biological Properties of Rhizophora racemosa G. Mey. Extracts Obtained by Different Methods and Solvents

“…Mangrove forests are the most productive and richest ecosystems on the planet. They provide valuable ecological benefits to the coastal lines of tropical and sub-tropical countries by acting as a protective barrier against waves, purify the nearby marine environment and provide habitats for countless reptiles, birds and fish [1]. Besides their perennial ecological roles, mangroves hold another important facet, which we sometimes overlook-the therapeutic value possessed by the plants.…”

“…Thus, our present study aims at shedding more light on this poorly understood plant. Our work is as follows: (1) characterize the phytochemicals present in leaves and barks using in vitro standard assays, (2) assess antioxidant properties in terms of radical scavenging, reducing potential, total antioxidant capacity and metal chelating, (3) evaluate the enzymatic inhibitory effects related to chronic diseases namely diabetes mellitus type II, neurodegenerative complications and skin disorders and (4) make a comparison between different extraction methods (infusion, homogenizer assisted extraction, maceration (with and without stirring)) used to prepare the samples. Additionally, antimycotic and antibacterial effects were investigated against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, Enterobacter cloacae, Bacillus cereus, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma viride, Penicillium funiculosum, Penicillium ochrochloron and Penicillium verrucosum.…”

Microbial diversity characterization of seawater in a pilot study using Oxford Nanopore Technologies long-read sequencing

“…Microbial diversity characterization has primarily relied on traditional high-throughput short-read sequencing methods, such as Illumina [7][8][9][10][11][12] or 454 sequencing [5]. Even though Pacific Biosciences single-molecule long-read sequencing has been used to catalogue the diversity of coral-associated microbial communities, these studies require amplification and 16S rRNA homology to position microbes taxonomically [5, 7, 9-11, 13, 14].…”