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Spatial heterogeneity of bacterial community structure in the sediments of the Pearl River estuary

  • Section Cellular and Molecular Biology
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Abstract

Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and multivariate statistical analytical methods were applied to investigate the spatial variation of bacterial community structure in the Pearl River estuary sediment and to address the relationship between microbial community composition and bottom water chemistry in ten different stations. Preliminary results of sequencing analysis of the excised DGGE bands suggested that α-Proteobacteria, γ-Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria were the dominant bacterial groups in the Pearl River estuary sediment. Results of multidimensional scaling analysis of these field data suggested that the composition of bacterial communities varied with sampling sites. Finally, canonical correspondence analysis of the data of environmental variables and bacterial community suggested that bacterial community structure was significantly influenced by the change of environmental variables (total phosphorus, nitrite, ammonium, dissolved oxygen, pH and salinity).

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Abbreviations

CCA:

canonical correspondence analysis

DGGE:

denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis

DO:

dissolved oxygen

MDSA:

multidimensional scaling analysis

TN:

total nitrogen

TP:

total phosphorus

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Oceanography in the Tropics, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, People’s Republic of China

    Fu-Lin Sun, You-Shao Wang, Mei-Lin Wu & Yu-Tu Wang

  2. Marine Biology Research Station at Daya Bay, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518121, China

    Fu-Lin Sun, You-Shao Wang & Yu-Tu Wang

  3. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, CA, 92093, USA

    Qian P. Li

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  1. Fu-Lin Sun
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  2. You-Shao Wang
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Correspondence to You-Shao Wang.

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Sun, FL., Wang, YS., Wu, ML. et al. Spatial heterogeneity of bacterial community structure in the sediments of the Pearl River estuary. Biologia 66, 574–584 (2011). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-011-0066-6

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