Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important environmental factors because they supply nutrients for microbial cells and mediate intercellular interactions. However, few studies have focused on the effects of VOCs on prokaryotic diversity and community composition. In this study, we examined the relationship between prokaryotic diversity and community composition and the content of VOCs in salt-lake sediments from the Tibet Plateau using amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Results showed that the alpha-diversity indices (Chao1, Shannon, and Simpson) were generally negatively correlated with the content of 36 VOCs (P < 0.05). The prokaryotic communities were significantly driven by multiple VOCs at the lineage-dependent pattern (P < 0.05). Further analysis indicated that VOCs, including 3-methylpyruvate, biuret, isocitric acid, and stearic acid, jointly explained 37.3% of the variations in prokaryotic communities. Supplemental VOCs—pyruvate, biuret, alanine, and aspartic acid—notably decreased the Chao1 and Shannon indices and significantly assembled co-occurrence networks for the bacterial communities in the saline sediments. Together, these results demonstrated that VOCs play a critical role in the regulation of the diversity, compositions, and network structures of prokaryotic communities in saline sediments.

中文翻译：

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青藏高原盐湖沉积物中挥发性有机物影响原核生物多样性和群落聚集。

挥发性有机化合物（VOC）是重要的环境因素，因为它们为微生物细胞提供营养并介导细胞间的相互作用。但是，很少有研究集中于挥发性有机化合物对原核生物多样性和群落组成的影响。在这项研究中，我们使用16S rRNA基因的扩增子序列检查了青藏高原盐湖沉积物中原核生物多样性与群落组成和VOC含量之间的关系。结果表明，α-多样性指数（Chao1，Shannon和Simpson）通常与36种挥发性有机化合物的含量呈负相关（P  <0.05）。原核生物群落受多种VOC的显着驱动，呈谱系依赖型（P <0.05）。进一步的分析表明，VOC，包括3-甲基丙酮酸，缩二脲，异柠檬酸和硬脂酸，共同解释了原核生物群落中37.3％的变异。补充的挥发性有机化合物（丙酮酸，缩二脲，丙氨酸和天冬氨酸）显着降低了Chao1和Shannon指数，并显着组装了盐沉积物中细菌群落的共现网络。总之，这些结果表明，挥发性有机化合物在盐类沉积物中原核生物多样性，组成和网络结构的调节中起着至关重要的作用。