Currently, much is unknown about the taxonomic diversity and the mechanisms of methane metabolism in the Florida Everglades ecosystem. The Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is a section of the Florida Everglades that is almost entirely unstudied in regard to taxonomic profiling. This short report analyzes the metagenome of soil samples from this Refuge to investigate the predominant taxa, as well as the abundance of genes involved in environmentally significant metabolic pathways related to methane production (nitrogen fixation and dissimilatory sulfite reduction). Shotgun metagenomic sequencing using the Illumina platform was performed on 17 soil samples from four different sites within the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, and underwent quality control, assembly, and annotation. The soil from each sample was tested for water content and concentrations of organic carbon and nitrogen. The three most common phyla of bacteria for every site were Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Proteobacteria; however, there was variation in relative phylum composition. The most common phylum of Archaea was Euryarchaeota for all sites. Alpha and beta diversity analyses indicated significant congruity in taxonomic diversity in most samples from Sites 1, 3, and 4 and negligible congruity between Site 2 and the other sites. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing revealed the presence of biogeochemical biomarkers of particular interest (e.g., mrcA, nifH, and dsrB) within the samples. The normalized abundances of mcrA, nifH, and dsrB exhibited a positive correlation with nitrogen concentration and water content, and a negative correlation with organic carbon concentration. This Everglades soil metagenomic study allowed examination of wetlands biological processes and showed expected correlations between measured organic constituents and prokaryotic gene frequency. Additionally, the taxonomic profile generated gives a basis for the diversity of prokaryotic microbial life throughout the Everglades.

中文翻译：

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佛罗里达大沼泽地Loxahatchee自然保护区微生物群落的弹枪宏基因组分析

目前，关于佛罗里达大沼泽地生态系统中的分类学多样性和甲烷代谢机制尚不清楚。Loxahatchee国家野生动物保护区是佛罗里达大沼泽地的一部分，在分类学分析方面几乎完全未被研究。这份简短的报告分析了该避难所的土壤样本的基因组，以调查主要的分类单元，以及与甲烷生产（固氮和异化亚硫酸盐还原）有关的对环境有重大影响的代谢途径中涉及的大量基因。使用Illumina平台对弹枪进行的宏基因组测序是对Loxahatchee国家野生动物保护区内四个不同地点的17个土壤样品进行的，并进行了质量控制，组装和注释。测试每个样品的土壤的水分含量以及有机碳和氮的浓度。每个部位的三种最常见细菌菌群是放线菌，酸性杆菌和变形杆菌。但是，相对门组成有变化。古细菌最常见的门是所有部位的Euryarchaeota。Alpha和Beta多样性分析表明，站点1、3和4的大多数样本在分类学多样性上具有显着的一致性，而站点2和其他站点之间的一致性可忽略不计。gun弹枪宏基因组测序揭示了样品中特别感兴趣的生物地球化学生物标记物（例如mrcA，nifH和dsrB）的存在。mcrA，nifH和dsrB的标准化丰度与氮浓度和水含量呈正相关，与有机碳浓度呈负相关。这项Everglades土壤宏基因组学研究允许检查湿地的生物过程，并显示了测得的有机成分与原核基因频率之间的预期相关性。此外，所产生的分类学概况为整个大沼泽地的原核微生物生活多样性提供了基础。