BACTERIAL COMMUNITY OF PERMAFROST SOIL IN ALASKA BASED ON 16S RRNA GENE BY PYROSEQUENCING METHOD

Abstract

Despite the potential contribution of thawing permafrost soil to the global climate change, the research of the microbial diversity in this habitat has been scarce. In this study, we investigate the bacterial diversity in active layer soil from the Alaskan high Arctic based on 16S rRNA genes using pyrosequencing. Although the bacterial diversity in this habitat was relatively low compared to other temperate soil environments, 16 known divisions and 8 unknown divisions were detected, where the phyla of Proteobacteria (32.0%), Acidobacteria (24.5%) and Actinobacteria (20.9%) were dominant. The most frequent sequences were assigned as a EU150278_s belonged to the order Xanthomoadales of the class Gammaproteobacteria with 3.4% in species level. These bacterial habitats contained approximately 1,384 phylotypes. Species richness showed 2,021 by Chao and 2,180 by ACE, whereas species evenness presented 6.18 and 0.004 by Shannon and Simpson, respectively. We also reveal the presence of bacterial families with the members including environmental relatives retrieved from diverse environments such as different types of soil habitats, drinking water biofilm, seawater, freshwater habitats and the atmosphere. Finally, we expect that complex environmental factors could affect shaping the microbiological composition of this environment. In conclusion, bacterial community in this ecosystem can be readily monitored by pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene.