Metagenomic Insights into Microbial Communities and Functional Traits of hot Springs in Guizhou province, China

Feng Chen^1,2Min Cheng^1,2,3Dongyun Rong^1,2Wang Yanyan^1,2,3RUBING LIANG⁴Muhammad Irfan⁵Yingqian Kang^1,2*Yu Cao^1,2,6*

• ¹School of Public Health, the key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Monitoring and Disease Control, Ministry of Education, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China
• ²Guizhou Key Laboratory of Microbiome and Infectious Disease Prevention & Control & School of Basic Medical Science & Institution of One Health Research, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China
• ³Department of Nosocomial Infection Management, The Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China
• ⁴State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic & Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
• ⁵ASRT, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, United States
• ⁶Department of Dermatology, The Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China

Hot springs were previously believed to have been free of any life form owing to their hostile nature. However, recent studies have determined that hot springs not only have rich microbiota but are also involved in different biogeochemical processes and possess unique characteristics that can be used for a number of biotechnological applications. This study aimed to determine the taxonomic bacterial diversity and functional predictions of 11 hot springs in the Guizhou Province, China. Illumina high-throughput sequencing was used to sequence the V3–V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene of microorganisms in samples collected from 11 hot springs. Software such as Mothur, SILVA ribosomal RNA database, and Quantitative Insights into Microbial Ecology (QIIME) were used for taxonomic and operational taxonomic unit (OTUs) analysis and PICRUST2 for function predictions. Guizhou Baili Rhododendron Hot Spring No.1 (BLDJA) had the highest diversity in terms of species richness, and Jianhe Hot Spring (YAS) had the lowest diversity. At the phylum level, the highest reported phyla included Pseudomonadota, Bacillota, Nitrospirota, Bacteroidota and Actinomycetota, where Pseudomonadota had the highest abundance (92.094%) in Jianhe Hot Spring (YAS) and the lowest (41.238%) in Guizhou Baili Rhododendron Hot Spring No.2 (BLDJB). Bacillota has the highest abundance (39.178%) in Guizhou Baili Rhododendron Hot Spring No.2 (BLDJB), the lowest (0.547%) in Jiutian Hot Spring (SNJT). The highest predicted functions were observed for amino acid metabolism followed by carbohydrates, however, functions for secondary metabolites, vitamins and environmental adoption, which made these habitats a good source of microbes of biotechnological applications. This study is a basic survey of 11 hot springs in Guizhou Province, which provides important materials for exploring the origin and evolution of microorganisms. At the same time, studying these microorganisms is important for understanding the adaptive mechanisms of life under extreme conditions of high temperatures and the possible biotechnological applications of these microbes. An in-depth functional metagenomic and next generation culturomics approach is required to fully understand the microbial flora and their possible biotechnological applications.