caa a22 4500 605499497 CHVBK 20210128100551.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20151001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00253-015-6723-x doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00253-015-6723-x Diversity and distribution of autotrophic microbial community along environmental gradients in grassland soils on the Tibetan Plateau [Elektronische Daten] [Guangxia Guo, Weidong Kong, Jinbo Liu, Jingxue Zhao, Haodong Du, Xianzhou Zhang, Pinhua Xia] Soil microbial autotrophs play a significant role in CO2 fixation in terrestrial ecosystem, particularly in vegetation-constrained ecosystems with environmental stresses, such as the Tibetan Plateau characterized by low temperature and high UV. However, soil microbial autotrophic communities and their driving factors remain less appreciated. We investigated the structure and shift of microbial autotrophic communities and their driving factors along an elevation gradient (4400-5100m above sea level) in alpine grassland soils on the Tibetan Plateau. The autotrophic microbial communities were characterized by quantitative PCR, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP), and cloning/sequencing of cbbL genes, encoding the large subunit for the CO2 fixation protein ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RubisCO). High cbbL gene abundance and high RubisCO enzyme activity were observed and both significantly increased with increasing elevations. Path analysis identified that soil RubisCO enzyme causally originated from microbial autotrophs, and its activity was indirectly driven by soil water content, temperature, and NH4 + content. Soil autotrophic microbial community structure dramatically shifted along the elevation and was jointly driven by soil temperature, watercontent, nutrients, and plant types. The autotrophic microbial communities were dominated by bacterial autotrophs, which were affiliated with Rhizobiales, Burkholderiales, and Actinomycetales. These autotrophs have been well documented to degrade organic matters; thus, metabolic versatility could be a key strategy for microbial autotrophs to survive in the harsh environments. Our results demonstrated high abundance of microbial autotrophs and high CO2 fixation potential in alpine grassland soils and provided a novel model to identify dominant drivers of soil microbial communities and their ecological functions. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015 RubisCO nationallicence CO2 fixation nationallicence Tibetan Plateau nationallicence Grassland nationallicence Elevation nationallicence Guo Guangxia Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut Kong Weidong Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut Liu Jinbo Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut Zhao Jingxue Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environmental Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut Du Haodong Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut Zhang Xianzhou Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut Xia Pinhua Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology Springer Berlin Heidelberg 99/20(2015-10-01), 8765-8776 0175-7598 99:20<8765 2015 99 253 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6723-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6723-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Guo Guangxia Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Kong Weidong Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Liu Jinbo Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Zhao Jingxue Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environmental Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Du Haodong Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Zhang Xianzhou Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Xia Pinhua Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology Springer Berlin Heidelberg 99/20(2015-10-01), 8765-8776 0175-7598 99:20<8765 2015 99 253