Inland athalassohaline solar salterns provide unique opportunity to study microbial successions along salinity gradients that resemble transition in natural hypersaline lakes. We analyzed for the first time 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences of bacteria (V1–V2) and archaea (V4–V5) in saltern brines of India’s largest inland hypersaline Sambhar Lake. Brines of the salterns (S1–S4) are alkaline (pH 9.5–10.5) with salinities of 130, 170, 280 and 350 gL⁻¹ respectively. 16S rRNA gene copy-number of archaea outnumbered that of bacteria in all salterns. Their diversity also increased along S1 through S4, while that of bacteria decreased. Brines of S3 and S4 were dominated by specialized extreme halophilic bacterial (Halanaerobiales, Rhodothermaceae) and archaeal (Halobacteriales, Haloferacales) members with recognized salt-in strategy for osmoadaptation. Microbial assemblages positively correlated to saltern pH, total salinity, and ionic composition. Archaea in S1 and S2 were unprecedentedly represented by poorly known as-yet uncultivated groups, Woesearchaeota (90.35–93.51%) and Nanohaloarchaeota that belong to the newly proposed nano-sized superphylum DPANN. In fact, these taxa were identified in archaeal datasets of other athalassohaline salterns after re-analysis using latest RDP database. Thus, microbial compositions in hypersaline lakes are complex and need revisit particularly for their archaeal diversity to understand their hitherto unknown ecological function in extreme environments.

内陆卤代卤化盐盐盐盐盐提供了独特的机会来研究沿盐度梯度的微生物演替，这些盐度梯度类似于天然高盐湖中的过渡。我们首次分析了印度最大的内陆超咸水桑巴哈尔湖盐沼中细菌（V1-V2）和古细菌（V4-V5）的16S rRNA基因扩增子序列。盐罐（S1-S4）的盐碱是碱性的（pH 9.5-10.5），盐度分别为130、170、280和350 gL ^-1。在所有盐罐中，古细菌的16S rRNA基因拷贝数均超过细菌数。它们的多样性沿S1到S4也增加，而细菌的多样性则下降。S3和S4的咸味细菌主要由特殊的极端嗜盐细菌（Halanaerobiales，Rhodothermaceae）和古细菌（AHalobacteriales（Haloferacales）成员，具有公认的渗透适应盐溶策略。微生物组合与盐度pH，总盐度和离子组成呈正相关。古细菌在S1和S2分别代表空前通过鲜为人知的尚未未开垦基，Woesearchaeota（90.35-93.51％）和Nanohaloarchaeota属于新提出的纳米尺寸superphylum DPANN。实际上，在使用最新的RDP数据库进行重新分析后，这些类群是在其他邻卤代盐盐制盐厂的古细菌数据集中发现的。因此，高盐湖中的微生物组成非常复杂，尤其需要对其古细菌的多样性进行研究，以了解其在极端环境中迄今未知的生态功能。