TY - JOUR

T1 - Metabarcoding under Brine

T2 - Microbial Ecology of Five Hypersaline Lakes at Rottnest Island (WA, Australia)

AU - Saccò, Mattia

AU - White, Nicole E.

AU - Campbell, Matthew

AU - Allard, Sebastian

AU - Humphreys, William F.

AU - Pringle, Paul

AU - Sepanta, Farid

AU - Laini, Alex

AU - Allentoft, Morten E.

N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgments: We acknowledge the Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions for sampling permits and the Rottnest Island Authority for logistical support. M. Saccò, N. White and M. Allentoft are supported by the BHP Social Investment Fund, eDNA for Global Biodiversity (eDGES) programme. This work was supported by resources provided by the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre with funding from the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia. The authors thank Elizabeth Ooi and Rae Young for their marvellous support and crucial assistance with fieldwork logistics. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors.

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Hypersaline ecosystems—aquatic environments where concentration of salt exceeds 35 g L−1—host microbial communities that are highly specialised to cope with these extreme conditions. However, our knowledge on the taxonomic diversity and functional metabolisms characterising microbial communities in the water columns of hypersaline ecosystems is still limited, and this may compromise the future preservation of these unique environments. DNA metabarcoding provides a reliable and affordable tool to investigate environmental dynamics of aquatic ecosystems, and its use in brine can be highly informative. Here, we make use of bacterial 16S metabarcoding techniques combined with hydrochemical analyses to investigate the microbial patterns (diversity and functions) from five hypersaline lakes located at Rottnest Island (WA). Our results indicate lake-driven microbial aquatic assemblages that are characterised by taxonomically and functionally moderately to extremely halophilic groups, with TDS (total dissolved solids) and alkalinity amongst the most influential parameters driving the community patterns. Overall, our findings suggest that DNA metabarcoding allows rapid but reliable ecological assessment of the hypersaline aquatic microbial communities at Rottnest Island. Further studies involving different hypersaline lakes across multiple seasons will help elucidate the full extent of the potential of this tool in brine.

AB - Hypersaline ecosystems—aquatic environments where concentration of salt exceeds 35 g L−1—host microbial communities that are highly specialised to cope with these extreme conditions. However, our knowledge on the taxonomic diversity and functional metabolisms characterising microbial communities in the water columns of hypersaline ecosystems is still limited, and this may compromise the future preservation of these unique environments. DNA metabarcoding provides a reliable and affordable tool to investigate environmental dynamics of aquatic ecosystems, and its use in brine can be highly informative. Here, we make use of bacterial 16S metabarcoding techniques combined with hydrochemical analyses to investigate the microbial patterns (diversity and functions) from five hypersaline lakes located at Rottnest Island (WA). Our results indicate lake-driven microbial aquatic assemblages that are characterised by taxonomically and functionally moderately to extremely halophilic groups, with TDS (total dissolved solids) and alkalinity amongst the most influential parameters driving the community patterns. Overall, our findings suggest that DNA metabarcoding allows rapid but reliable ecological assessment of the hypersaline aquatic microbial communities at Rottnest Island. Further studies involving different hypersaline lakes across multiple seasons will help elucidate the full extent of the potential of this tool in brine.

KW - DNA metabarcoding

KW - Functional genetics

KW - Hypersaline

KW - Microbes

KW - Rottnest Island

KW - Water

U2 - 10.3390/w13141899

DO - 10.3390/w13141899

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85110517784

VL - 13

JO - Water

JF - Water

SN - 2073-4441

IS - 14

M1 - 1899

ER -