All environments including hypersaline ones harbor measurable concentrations of dissolved extracellular DNA (eDNA) that can be utilized by microbes as a nutrient. However, it remains poorly understood which eDNA components are used, and who in a community utilizes it. For this study, we incubated a saltern microbial community with combinations of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and DNA, and tracked the community response in each microcosm treatment via 16S rRNA and rpoB gene sequencing. We show that microbial communities used DNA only as a phosphorus source, and provision of other sources of carbon and nitrogen was needed to exhibit a substantial growth. The taxonomic composition of eDNA in the water column changed with the availability of inorganic phosphorus or supplied DNA, hinting at preferential uptake of eDNA from specific organismal sources. Especially favored for growth was eDNA from the most abundant taxa, suggesting some haloarchaea prefer eDNA from closely related taxa. The preferential eDNA consumption and differential growth under various nutrient availability regimes were associated with substantial shifts in the taxonomic composition and diversity of microcosm communities. Therefore, we conjecture that in salterns the microbial community assembly is driven by the available resources, including eDNA.

包括高盐环境在内的所有环境都含有可测量浓度的溶解细胞外 DNA (eDNA)，微生物可以将其用作营养物质。然而，人们对使用哪些 eDNA 组件以及社区中的谁使用它仍然知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们用碳、氮、磷和 DNA 的组合培养了一个盐湖微生物群落，并通过 16S rRNA 和rpoB追踪了每个微观世界处理中的群落反应基因测序。我们表明，微生物群落仅使用 DNA 作为磷源，需要提供其他碳源和氮源才能实现显着增长。水柱中 eDNA 的分类组成随着无机磷或提供的 DNA 的可用性而变化，暗示优先从特定生物来源吸收 eDNA。特别有利于生长的是来自最丰富的类群的 eDNA，这表明一些盐生菌更喜欢来自密切相关的类群的 eDNA。在各种养分可用性制度下，优先的 eDNA 消耗和差异增长与微观世界群落的分类组成和多样性的重大变化有关。因此，我们推测在盐田中，微生物群落组装是由可用资源驱动的，