Microbial community composition in alpine lake sediments from the Hengduan Mountains

Microbial communities in sediments play an important role in alpine lake ecosystems. However, the microbial diversity and community composition of alpine lake sediments from the Hengduan Mountains remain largely unknown. Therefore, based on the Illumina MiSeq platform, high-throughput sequencing analysis of the 16S rRNA gene was performed on 15 alpine lake sediments collected at different locations in the Hengduan Mountains. The abundance-based coverage estimate (ACE), Chao1, and Shannon indices indicated that the microbial abundance and diversity of these sediments were high. There are some differences in the composition of microbial communities among sediments. However, in general, Proteobacteria accounted for the largest proportion of all sediments (22.3%-67.6%) and was the dominant phylum. Followed by Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Planctomycetes. In addition, the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) interactions network had modular structures and suggested more cooperation than competition in the microbial community. Besides, we also found that temperature has a significant contribution to the sample-environment relationship. This study revealed the diversity and composition of microbial communities in alpine lake sediments from the Hengduan Mountains, and describe the correlation between microbial community structure and different environmental variables.