Bacteria in the lakes of the Tibetan Plateau and polar regions

The Tibetan Plateau, also termed ‘the Third Pole’ harbors the largest number of high-altitude lakes in world. Due to presence extreme conditions such as low temperature and oligotrophy, Plateau share environmental features common with polar regions. However, extent which these environments are analogous, or indeed whether they harbor similar microbial communities a high level endemic species is poorly understood. Here we compared high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing data from three different regions order characterize their taxonomic diversity, community composition biogeography. Our results showed despite similarity conditions, spatial distribution bacterial was distinct only 3.1% all operational units (OTUs) being present (although OTUs did account for considerable proportion total sequences, 36.4%). Sequences belonging Burkholderiales Actinomycetales dominated shared across Scale dependent distance decay patterns provided evidence dispersal limitation. Climatic variables limitation were apparently both important controlling This work expands our understanding diversity biogeography lake provides insights into how compare those Antarctic Arctic.