Open AccessEpipelagic microbiome of the Small Aral Sea: Metagenomic structure and ecological diversity
Author(s) -
Alexyuk Madina,
Bogoyavlenskiy Andrey,
Alexyuk Pavel,
Moldakhanov Yergali,
Berezin Vladimir,
Digel Ilya
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
microbiologyopen
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.881
H-Index - 36
ISSN - 2045-8827
DOI - 10.1002/mbo3.1142
Subject(s) - pelagic zone , ecology , metagenomics , biology , chloroflexi (class) , biodiversity , firmicutes , geography , 16s ribosomal rna , bacteria , paleontology , biochemistry , gene
Microbial diversity studies regarding the aquatic communities that experienced or are experiencing environmental problems are essential for the comprehension of the remediation dynamics. In this pilot study, we present data on the phylogenetic and ecological structure of microorganisms from epipelagic water samples collected in the Small Aral Sea (SAS). The raw data were generated by massive parallel sequencing using the shotgun approach. As expected, most of the identified DNA sequences belonged to Terrabacteria and Actinobacteria (40% and 37% of the total reads, respectively). The occurrence of Deinococcus ‐ Thermus , Armatimonadetes , Chloroflexi in the epipelagic SAS waters was less anticipated. Surprising was also the detection of sequences, which are characteristic for strict anaerobes— Ignavibacteria , hydrogen‐oxidizing bacteria, and archaeal methanogenic species. We suppose that the observed very broad range of phylogenetic and ecological features displayed by the SAS reads demonstrates a more intensive mixing of water masses originating from diverse ecological niches of the Aral‐Syr Darya River basin than presumed before.