Open AccessCarbon–Nitrogen–Sulfur-Related Microbial Taxa and Genes Maintained the Stability of Microbial Communities in Coals
Author(s) -
Yang Li,
Bingjun Liu,
Jian Chen,
Xuelian Yue
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
acs omega
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.779
H-Index - 40
ISSN - 2470-1343
DOI - 10.1021/acsomega.2c02126
Subject(s) - biology , relative species abundance , denitrification , nitrogen fixation , ecology , gammaproteobacteria , botany , abundance (ecology) , chemistry , 16s ribosomal rna , nitrogen , gene , bacteria , biochemistry , genetics , organic chemistry
Coal microbes are the predominant form of life in the subsurface ecosystem, which play a vital role in biogeochemical cycles. However, the systematic information about carbon-nitrogen-sulfur (C-N-S)-related microbial communities in coal seams is limited. In this study, 16S rRNA gene data from a total of 93 microbial communities in coals were collected for meta-analysis. The results showed that 718 functional genera were related to the C-N-S cycle, wherein N 2 fixation, denitrification, and C degradation groups dominated in relative abundance, Chao1 richness, Shannon diversity, and niche width. Genus Pseudomonas having the most C-N-S-related functions showed the highest relative abundance, and genus Herbaspirillum with a higher abundance participated in C degradation, CH 4 oxidation, N 2 fixation, ammoxidation, and denitrification. Such Herbaspirillum was a core genus in the co-occurrence network of microbial prokaryotes and showed higher levels in weight degree, betweenness centrality, and eigenvector centrality. In addition, most of the methanogens could fix N 2 and dominated in the N 2 fixation groups. Among them, genera Methanoculleus and Methanosaeta showed higher levels in the betweenness centrality index. In addition, the genus Clostridium was linked to the methanogenesis co-occurrence network module. In parallel, the S reduction gene was present in the highest total relative abundance of genes, followed by the C degradation and the denitrification genes, and S genes (especially cys genes) were the main genes linked to the co-occurrence network of the C-N-S-related genes. In summary, this study strengthened our knowledge regarding the C-N-S-related coal microbial communities, which is of great significance in understanding the microbial ecology and geochemical cycle of coals.