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. 2020 Jun 16;8(6):906.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8060906.

Meta-Analysis of Microbial Communities in Hot Springs: Recurrent Taxa and Complex Shaping Factors beyond pH and Temperature

Francisco L Massello  1 , Chia Sing Chan  2 , Kok-Gan Chan  3 , Kian Mau Goh  2 , Edgardo Donati  1 , María Sofía Urbieta  1
Affiliations

Meta-Analysis of Microbial Communities in Hot Springs: Recurrent Taxa and Complex Shaping Factors beyond pH and Temperature

Francisco L Massello et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

The study of microbial communities from extreme environments is a fascinating topic. With every study, biologists and ecologists reveal interesting facts and questions that dispel the old belief that these are inhospitable environments. In this work, we assess the microbial diversity of three hot springs from Neuquén, Argentina, using high-throughput amplicon sequencing. We predicted a distinct metabolic profile in the acidic and the circumneutral samples, with the first ones being dominated by chemolithotrophs and the second ones by chemoheterotrophs. Then, we collected data of the microbial communities of hot springs around the world in an effort to comprehend the roles of pH and temperature as shaping factors. Interestingly, there was a covariation between both parameters and the phylogenetic distance between communities; however, neither of them could explain much of the microbial profile in an ordination model. Moreover, there was no correlation between alpha diversity and these parameters. Therefore, the microbial communities' profile seemed to have complex shaping factors beyond pH and temperature. Lastly, we looked for taxa associated with different environmental conditions. Several such taxa were found. For example, Hydrogenobaculum was frequently present in acidic springs, as was the Sulfolobaceae family; on the other hand, Candidatus Hydrothermae phylum was strongly associated with circumneutral conditions. Interestingly, some singularities related to sites featuring certain taxa were also observed.

Keywords: Caviahue-Copahue; Domuyo; amplicon sequencing; extreme environments; extremophiles; hot springs; microbial communities.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of sampling sites in Neuquén, Argentina.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative abundance of phyla in the microbial communities of Agua de Limón (AL), Baño 9 (B9) and Los Tachos (LT). Phyla with abundance lower than 1% were grouped as “Other”.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Nonmetrical dimensional scaling plot NMDS of the collection of hot spring microbial communities. Colors correspond to data sources (see Supplementary Table S1), while shapes map for pH and temperature groups. Factor levels for pH were ‘A’ for acidic samples (pH < 5) and ’N’ for circumneutral samples (pH > 5. Temperature categories were ‘T’ for samples with temperature lower than 70 °C and ’H’ for hyperthermophilic samples (temperature > 70 °C).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Alpha diversity indexes and their correlations with pH and temperature (°C). The p-value of the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (Rho) is shown.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Heatmap of the relative abundance of taxa at different ranks across samples and conditions. Taxa are named and ranked (x-axis) are according to the Silva database. Sample names (y-axis) are fully described in Supplementary Table S1. The first two letters of each sample name correspond to the location of the sample: Malaysia (MS); New Zealand (NZ); Raoul Island, New Zealand (RI); Sikkim, India (SK); Tengchong, China (TC); Uzon Caldera, Russia (UZ); and Yellowstone National Park, USA (YS). LT, B9 and AL are the samples from Caviahue-Copahue and Domuyo described in this study. Sample conditions are described as acidic and hyperthermophilic (AH), acidic and thermophilic (AT) or circumneutral and thermophilic (NH).
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