Cyanobacteria and alphaproteobacteria may facilitate cooperative interactions in niche communities

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dc.contributor.author Van Goethem, Marc W.
dc.contributor.author Makhalanyane, Thulani Peter
dc.contributor.author Cowan, Don A.
dc.contributor.author Valverde, Angel
dc.date.accessioned 2017-11-20T05:50:01Z
dc.date.available 2017-11-20T05:50:01Z
dc.date.issued 2017-10-25
dc.description.abstract Hypoliths, microbial assemblages found below translucent rocks, provide important ecosystem services in deserts. While several studies have assessed microbial diversity of hot desert hypoliths and whether these communities are metabolically active, the interactions among taxa remain unclear. Here, we assessed the structure, diversity, and co-occurrence patterns of hypolithic communities from the hyperarid Namib Desert by comparing total (DNA) and potentially active (RNA) communities. The potentially active and total hypolithic communities differed in their composition and diversity, with significantly higher levels of Cyanobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria in potentially active hypoliths. Several phyla known to be abundant in total hypolithic communities were metabolically inactive, indicating that some hypolithic taxa may be dormant or dead. The potentially active hypolith network was highly modular in structure with almost exclusively positive co-occurrences (>95% of the total) between taxa. Members of the Cyanobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria were identified as potential keystone taxa, and exhibited numerous positive co-occurrences with other microbes, suggesting that these groups might have important roles in maintaining network topological structure despite their low abundance. en_ZA
dc.description.department Genetics en_ZA
dc.description.librarian am2017 en_ZA
dc.description.sponsorship The National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant no. 97891 to MWVG and TTK13061018773 to AV) and the University of Pretoria (MWVG, AV, TPM, and DAC). en_ZA
dc.description.uri http://www.frontiersin.org/Microbiology en_ZA
dc.identifier.citation Van Goethem, M.W., Makhalanyane, T.P., Cowan, D.A. & Valverde, A. (2017) Cyanobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria May Facilitate Cooperative Interactions in Niche Communities. Front. Microbiol. 8:2099. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02099. en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02099
dc.identifier.issn 1664-302X (online)
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/63198
dc.language.iso en en_ZA
dc.publisher Frontiers Research Foundation en_ZA
dc.rights © 2017 Van Goethem, Makhalanyane, Cowan and Valverde. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). en_ZA
dc.subject Cyanobacteria en_ZA
dc.subject Namib Desert en_ZA
dc.subject Hypolith en_ZA
dc.subject 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) en_ZA
dc.subject Network analysis en_ZA
dc.subject Keystone species en_ZA
dc.subject Dormancy en_ZA
dc.subject Bacterial en_ZA
dc.subject Ecology en_ZA
dc.subject Diversity en_ZA
dc.subject Namib Desert en_ZA
dc.subject Ribosomal RNA en_ZA
dc.subject Rare biosphere en_ZA
dc.subject Functional capacity en_ZA
dc.subject Association networks en_ZA
dc.subject Soil microbial communities en_ZA
dc.title Cyanobacteria and alphaproteobacteria may facilitate cooperative interactions in niche communities en_ZA
dc.type Article en_ZA


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