Quantifying which assembly processes structure microbiomes can assist prediction, manipulation, and engineering of community outcomes. However, the relative importance of these processes might depend on whether DNA or RNA are used, as they differ in stability. We hypothesized that. RNA-inferred community responses to (a)biotic fluctuations are faster than those inferred by DNA; the relative influence of variable selection is stronger in RNA-inferred communities (environmental factors are spatiotemporally heterogeneous), whereas homogeneous selection largely influences DNA-inferred communities (environmental filters are constant). To test these hypotheses, we characterized soil bacterial communities by sequencing both 16S rRNA amplicons from the extracted DNA and RNA transcripts across distinct stages of soil primary succession and quantified the relative influence of each assembly process using ecological null model analysis. Our results revealed that variations in α-diversity and temporal turnover were higher in RNA- than in DNA-inferred communities across successional stages, albeit there was a similar community composition; in line with our hypotheses, the assembly of RNA-inferred community was more closely associated with environmental variability (variable selection) than using the standard DNA-based approach, which was largely influenced by homogeneous selection. This study illustrates the need for benchmarking approaches to properly elucidate how community assembly processes structure microbial communities.

中文翻译：

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比较基于DNA和RNA数据的组装过程对细菌群落演替的影响。

量化哪些组装过程可构造微生物群落，从而有助于社区成果的预测，操纵和工程化。但是，这些过程的相对重要性可能取决于使用的是DNA还是RNA，因为它们的稳定性不同。我们假设了这一点。RNA诱导的社区对（a）生物波动的反应比DNA推断的要快；变量选择的相对影响在RNA推断的群落中更强（环境因素在时空上是异质的），而同质选择在很大程度上影响DNA推断的群落（环境过滤器是恒定的）。为了检验这些假设，我们通过对从土壤初级演替的不同阶段提取的DNA和RNA转录本中的16S rRNA扩增子进行测序来表征土壤细菌群落，并使用生态无效模型分析量化了每个组装过程的相对影响。我们的研究结果表明，尽管存在相似的群落组成，但在演替阶段中，RNA诱导的群落中α多样性和时间转换的差异要大于DNA推测的群落。与我们的假设相符，与使用标准的基于DNA的方法相比，RNA推断的群落的组装与环境变异性（变量选择）更紧密相关，后者受同质选择的影响很大。