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. 2020 Jul 10;15(7):e0236006. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236006

Isolation and diversity of sediment bacteria in the hypersaline aiding lake, China

Tong-Wei Guan 1,*, Yi-Jin Lin 1, Meng-Ying Ou 1, Ke-Bao Chen 1
Editor: Paula V Morais2
PMCID: PMC7351256  PMID: 32649724

Abstract

Halophiles are relatively unexplored as potential sources of novel species. However, little is known about the culturable bacterial diversity thrive in hypersaline lakes. In this work, a total of 343 bacteria from sediment samples of Aiding Lake, China, were isolated using nine different media supplemented with 5% or 15% (w/v) NaCl. The number of species and genera of bacteria recovered from the different media varied, indicating the need to optimize the isolation conditions. The results showed an unexpected level of bacterial diversity, with four phyla (Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Rhodothermaeota), fourteen orders (Actinopolysporales, Alteromonadales, Bacillales, Balneolales, Chromatiales, Glycomycetales, Jiangellales, Micrococcales, Micromonosporales, Oceanospirillales, Pseudonocardiales, Rhizobiales, Streptomycetales, and Streptosporangiales), including 17 families, 43 genera (including two novel genera), and 71 species (including four novel species). The predominant phyla included Actinobacteria and Firmicutes and the predominant genera included Actinopolyspora, Gracilibacillus, Halomonas, Nocardiopsis, and Streptomyces. To our knowledge, this is the first time that members of phylum Rhodothermaeota were identified in sediment samples from a salt lake.

1 Introduction

Halophiles thrive in hypersaline niches and have potential applications in biotechnology [1, 2]. Microbial diversity in most hypersaline environments is often studied using culture-dependent and -independent methods [37]. Previous studies have shown that the taxonomic diversity of microbial populations in terrestrial saline and hypersaline environments is relatively low [8, 9]. Halophilic microbial communities vary with season [10], and in general, microbial diversity decreases with increased salinity [11, 12]. Hypersaline lakes are considered extreme environments for microbial life. A variety of salt lakes have been surveyed for bacterial diversity such as Chaka Lake in China, Chott El Jerid Lake in Tunisia, Meyghan Lake in Iran, Keke Lake in China, and Great Salt Lake in the United States [5, 1316]. In addition, groups of novel halophilic or halotolerant bacteria in salt lakes have been described using culture-dependent methods: Actinopolyspora lacussalsi sp. nov., Amycolatopsis halophila sp. nov., Brevibacterium salitolerans sp. nov., Halomonas xiaochaidanensis sp. nov., Paracoccus halotolerans sp. nov., and Salibacterium nitratireducens sp. nov. of phyla Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, or Proteobacteria [1722]. Despite these previous studies, our understanding of bacterial diversity in hypersaline lakes remains limited, particularly in athalassohaline lakes at low elevations. Aiding Lake represents an ideal site for studying halophilic or halotolerant bacteria in a hypersaline lake. The salt lake is located on the Turpan Basin and surround by the Gobi desert in Xinjiang province, China. In fact, our current understanding of the bacterial diversity in the Aiding Lake using a culture-dependent method is limited. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to comprehensively characterize the bacterial diversity in dry salt lake sediments. The aim of the study was to investigate the bacterial diversity and to mine novel bacterial species from Aiding Lake.

2 Materials and methods

2.1 Site description and sample collection

Aiding Lake is a dry salt lake located on the Turpan Basin in Xinjiang Province, China (S1 Fig), with an elevation of 154 m–293 m below sea level. Aiding Lake covers an area of about 60 km2 and is a closed ecosystem, without the influx of perennial rivers. Three soil samples, namely, S1 (89°21′98″E, 42°40′42″N), S2 (89°16'6″E, 42°38'55″N), and S3 (89°20'26″E, 42°41'53″N) were collected from the lake sediments, respectively. Soil samples temperature are 23.6°C-25.1°C. Three sediment samples at different sites were collected from a same depth of 1 to 30 cm in mid-July of 2012. The distance between two sample points was greater than 5 km. Samples were stored at 4°C in the field and immediately transported to the laboratory. The pH was measured with portable meters after the sediments were resuspended in distilled water. The concentrations of major cations and trace elements in the dissolved sediments were measured according to Yakimov et al. (2002) [23].

2.2 Isolation of microorganisms

Three sediment samples were selected for cultivation of bacteria. To isolate halophilic and/or halotolerant bacteria, the sediments (10 g wet weight) were dispersed into 90 mL of sterilized NaCl brine (5% or 15%, w/v) and incubated at 37°C for 60 min with shaking at 200 rpm. The resulting slurry was then serially diluted with sterilized NaCl brine (5% or 15%, w/v). Aliquots (0.1 mL) of each dilution were spread onto Petri dishes using nine media (Table 1) for the isolation of bacteria. The no. of colonies on each kind of medium plate was calculated by three repeats. All agar plates were supplemented with 5% or 15% (w/v) NaCl. To suppress the growth of nonbacterial fungi, the solidified media were supplemented with nystatin (50 mg·L-1). The Petri dishes were incubated at 37°C for one to six weeks. Based on size and color, colonies were picked and further purified on inorganic salts-starch agar [24] or TSA supplemented with 5% or 15% (w/v) NaCl, and as glycerol suspension (20%, v/v) at -20°C or as lyophilized cells for long-term storage at -4°C.

Table 1. Compositions of the nine different media used for the isolation of bacteria from Aiding Lake samples.

Medium Composition Reference
A Inorganic salts-starch agar (ISP 4) Shirling and Gottlieb 1966
B Casein hydrolysate acid-starch agar: starch 5.0 g, casein hydrolysate acid 0.5 g, KNO3 0.5 g, Aspartic acid 0.1g, CaCO3, 0.3 g, K2HPO4 0.5 g, MgCl2 0.2 g, FeSO4·7H2O 10 mg, agar 18 g This study
C Microcrystalline cellulose-proline agar: microcrystalline cellulose 2.0 g, proline 0.5 g, arginine 0.1 g, KCl 10 g, (NH4)2SO4 1.0 g, K2HPO4 0.2 g, CaCO3 0.02 g, MgSO4 · 7H2O 2 g, FeSO4 ·7H2O 10 mg, MnCl2·4H2O 1mg, agar 18 g This study
D Glycerin-asparagine agar: glycerin 3g, asparagine 1g, C3H3NaO3 0.5g, MgSO4· 7H2O 2 g, FeSO4·7H2O 10 mg, ZnSO4·7H2O 1 mg, VB1 0.1 mg, VB6 0.05 mg, biotin 0.2mg, agar 18 g This study
E Yeast extract-casamino acids agar: yeast extract 3g, Casamino acids 2g, Sodium glutamate 1g, Trisodium citrate 1g, MgSO4·7H2O 5g, CaCl2·2H2O 1g, KCl 3g, FeCl2·4H2O 0.2mg, MnCl2·4H2O 0.2mg, agar, 18 g This study
F Stachyose tetrahydrate-Alanine agar: stachyose tetrahydrate 5g, alanine 2g, KNO3 0.2g, CaCO3 0.02g, MgSO4.7H2O 0.05g, KCl 20g, FeSO4·7H2O 10 mg, MgCl2 20g, agar 18 g This study
G Microcrystalline cellulose-sorbitol agar: microcrystalline cellulose 10g, sorbitol 2g, Beta-Cyclodextrin 1g, MgSO4·7H2O 0.1g, CaCO3 0.5g, FeSO4 0.01g, KCl 20g, MgCl2 10g, agar 18 g This study
H Yeast extract-fish peptone agar: yeast extract 1g, fish peptone 0.5g, NH4Cl 0.5g, MgSO4.7H2O 20g, MgCl2·6H2O 15g, KCl 5g, sodium pyruvate 1g, K2HPO4 0.3g, CaCl2·2H2O 0.2g, agar 18 g This study
I Yeast extract-glycerin agar: yeast extract 10g, Glycerin 0.5g, peptone 0.5g, (NH4)NO3 0.1g, MgCl2 5g, Na2SO4 3g, yeast KCl 1g, NaHCO3 2g, KBr 0.05g, SrCl2 0.01g, Na2SiO3 0.001g, agar 18 g This study

2.3 Identification of bacteria

Isolated strains were subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis for precise genus and species identification. Genomic DNA was extracted from each isolate, and the 16S rRNA gene sequence was amplified as described by Li et al. (2007) [25] with primers PA (5'-CAGAGTTTGATCCTGGCT-3') and PB (5'-AGG AGGTGATCCAGCCGC A-3'), or the primers 27F (5'-AGAGTTTGATCMTGGCTCAG-3') and 1492R (5'-GGTTACCTTGTT ACGACTT-3'). PCR products were purified using a PCR purification kit (Sangon, Shanghai, China). The almost-complete 16S rRNA gene sequence (about 1450bp) of isolated strains was obtained. Multiple alignments with sequences of the most closely related recognized species and calculations of levels of sequence similarity were conducted using EzBioCloud server [26]. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using the software package MEGA version 6.0 [27]. Phylogenetic trees were constructed according to the neighbor-joining method [28]. Evolutionary distance matrices were generated as described by Kimura (1980) [29]. The topology of the phylogenetic tree was evaluated using the bootstrap resampling method of Felsenstein (1985) [30] with 1000 replicates. DNA-DNA relatedness values were determined using the fluorometric microwell method [31]. The identities of these organisms were determined based on nearly full-length 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The sequences of 100% identity were clustered into one species.

2.4 Spearman correlation analysis

Pearson’s test was performed to reveal the correlations between physicochemical properties and bacterial genera using SPSS Statistics19.0.

2.5 Nucleotide sequence accession numbers

The sequences of the bacterial isolates reported in this study have been deposited to GenBank (Accession no. MK818765- MK818834, MK296404).

3 Results

3.1 Sediment geochemistry

Physicochemical parameters were distinct among the three sediment samples (Table 2). In the S1, S2, and S3 samples, Na+ concentrations ranged from 26.37 g/Kg to 83.93 g/Kg and Cl- concentrations ranged from 33.28 g/Kg to 389.11 g/Kg, which are typical of chloride-type environments. The pH of the sediment samples ranged from 7.6 to 8.3, indicating a slightly alkaline environment. In sample S3, ionic composition (e.g., Mg2+, Na+, K+, Mn2+, and Cl-) was significantly lower than the other samples. The other physicochemical properties of the samples are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Physicochemical properties of the sediments from the three sample sites in Aiding Lake.

Site pH Ion concentration (g Kg-1)
Ca2+ Mg2+ Fe2+ Na+ K+ Mn2+ Cl- SO42- HCO3-
S1 8.3 6.54 1.93 63ppm 83.93 0.33 23ppm 389.11 85.25 0.06
S2 8.1 0.24 2.43 102ppm 38.29 0.25 9ppm 45.38 6.42 0.13
S3 7.6 4.25 0.61 82ppm 26.37 0.16 2ppm 33.28 23.52 0.41

ppm, parts per million.

3.2 Diversity of sediment bacteria

According to the analysis of sequencing results, many of isolated strains had exactly the same 16S rRNA sequence. 343 isolated strains belong to 71 different bacterial species after merging the duplicated strains (Table 3). The percentages of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities (91.14% to 100%) of these isolates to the closest type strains are presented in Table 3. As the results indicated, most of the strains exhibited > 97% similarity to other published type species. While the similarity of three strains (ADL013, ADL014, and ADL023) were less than 97%, which represented three different novel species (Table 3). It is generally accepted that organisms displaying 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 97% or less belong to different species [32]. For example, strain ADL014 shared 96.51% similarity with Anaerobacillus alkalidiazotrophicus F01CH1-61-65, and DNA-DNA hybridization experiments from the two strains revealed that levels of DNA-DNA relatedness were 36.8± 4.3%. Sequence analysis indicated that strain ADL014 formed a distinct lineage within the genus Anaerobacillus and always had the closest phylogenetic affinity to members of the genus Anaerobacillus (Fig 1). Phylogenetic reconstruction also indicated that strain ADL014 could represent a novel species.

Table 3. Bacteria isolated using two different salinity from sediments of Aiding Lake, with the similarity values for 16S rRNA gene sequences.

Isolate Salinity Closest cultivated species (GenBank accession no.) Similarity (%) No. of isolates
ADL001 15% Actinopolyspora alba YIM 90480 (GQ480940) 98.50 3
ADL003 15% Actinopolyspora mortivallis DSM 44261(NR_043996.1) 98.80 1
ADL004 15% Actinopolyspora halophila DSM 43834 (AQUI01000002) 100 9
ADL007 15% Actinopolyspora xinjiangensis DSM 46732 (jgi.1055186) 99.71 13
ADL008 15% Aidingimonas halophila DSM 19219 (jgi.1107932) 97.76 2
ADL009 15% Aliifodinibius salicampi KHM44 (LC198077) 99.58 5
ADL011 15% Alteribacillus alkaliphilus JC229 (HG799487) 98.12 1
ADL012 5% Alteribacillus bidgolensis IBRC-M10614 (jgi.1071278) 99.86 7
ADL013 15% Alteribacillus persepolensis HS136 (FM244839) 94.71 1
ADL014 5% Anaerobacillus uncultured bacterium F01CH1-61-65 (HF558583) 96.51 1
ADL015 15% Aquibacillus albus YIM 93624 (JQ680032) 100 9
ADL017 5% Aquibacillus koreensis BH30097 (AY616012) 97.28 1
ADL018 15% Aquisalimonas halophila YIM 95345 (KC577145) 100 12
ADL019 15% Bacillus halmapalus DSM 8723 (KV917375) 99.29 6
ADL020 15% Bacillus salarius BH169 (AY667494) 98.98 3
ADL021 5% Bacillus swezeyi NRRL B-41294 (MRBK01000096) 99.79 6
ADL022 15% Filobacillus milosensis DSM 13259 (AJ238042) 99.53 4
ADL023 15% Caldalkalibacillus uzonensis JW/WZ-YB58 (DQ221694) 91.14 1
ADL024 5% Glycomyces xiaoerkulensis TRM 41368 (MF669725) 99.72 2
ADL026 15% Gracilibacillus bigeumensis BH097 (EF520006) 99.57 16
ADL027 5%/15% Gracilibacillus orientalis XH-63 (AM040716) 98.36 2
ADL028 15% Gracilibacillus saliphilus YIM 91119 (EU784646) 99.58 8
ADL029 5%/15% Gracilibacillus thailandensis TP2-8 (FJ182214) 97.86 6
ADL030 15% Gracilibacillus ureilyticus MF38 (EU709020) 97.95 1
ADL031 15% Haloactinospora alba YIM 90648 (DQ923130) 99.44 3
ADL032 15% Halobacillus dabanensis D-8 (AY351395) 99.11 5
ADL033 5% Halobacillus yeomjeoni MSS-402 (AY881246) 98.52 3
ADL034 15% Haloechinothrix halophila YIM 93223 (KI632509) 97.93 2
ADL036 5% Halomonas arcis AJ282 (EF144147) 99 17
ADL037 15% Halomonas lutea DSM 23508 (ARKK01000003) 100 4
ADL038 5%/15% Halomonas xinjiangensis TRM 0175 (JPZL01000008) 99.5 21
ADL040 5%/15% Jeotgalibacillus terrae JSM 081008 (FJ527421) 99.15 4
ADL041 5% Kocuria assamensis S9-65 (HQ018931) 99.64 1
ADL042 5% Kocuria palustris DSM 11925 (Y16263) 99.72 1
ADL044 5% Longimycelium tulufanense TRM 46004 (HQ229000) 100 5
ADL045 5% Marinactinospora thermotolerans DSM 45154 (FUWS01000037) 99.29 6
ADL047 5% Marinobacter guineae M3B (AM503093) 98.59 3
ADL048 5%/15% Marinobacter lacisalsi FP2.5 (EU047505) 98.9 5
ADL049 15% Marinococcus luteus DSM 23126 (jgi.1089306) 100 11
ADL050 5% Micromonospora andamanensis SP03-05 (JX524154) 99.05 2
ADL053 5% Micromonospora halotolerans CR18(NR_132303.1) 100 3
ADL054 5% Myceligenerans salitolerans XHU 5031 (JX316007) 100 2
ADL055 15% Nesterenkonia halophila YIM 70179 (AY820953) 99 2
ADL056 5% Nitratireductor shengliensis 110399 (KC222645) 97.58 3
ADL057 5% Nocardiopsis aegyptia DSM 44442 (AJ539401) 99.43 7
ADL060 5% Nocardiopsis mwathae No.156 (KF976731) 98.72 3
ADL061 15% Nocardiopsis rosea YIM 90094 (AY619713) 99.27 6
ADL063 5% Nocardiopsis sinuspersici HM6 (EU410476) 98.8 1
ADL065 5% Ornithinibacillus scapharcae TW25 (AEWH01000025) 98.52 1
ADL066 15% Phytoactinopolyspora halotolerans YIM 96448 (KY979511) 100 3
ADL067 15% Piscibacillus halophilus HS224 (FM864227) 99.01 5
ADL068 5% Planococcus salinarum DSM 23820 (MBQG01000128) 98.82 2
ADL069 15% Pontibacillus marinus BH030004 (AVPF01000156) 99.12 9
ADL070 5% Prauserella marina CGMCC 4.5506 (jgi.1085010) 97.3 1
ADL071 15% Saccharomonospora azurea NA-128 (AGIU02000033) 100 6
ADL073 15% Saccharomonospora xiaoerkulensis TRM 41495 (KU511278) 99.72 1
ADL075 15% Saccharopolyspora lacisalsi TRM 40133 (JF411070) 100 5
ADL076 15% Salinicoccus luteus YIM 70202 (DQ352839) 100 9
ADL078 5% Salinifilum aidingensis TRM 46074 (JX193858) 99.93 4
ADL079 5% Sediminibacillus halophilus EN8d (AM905297) 100 11
ADL080 15% Sinobaca qinghaiensis YIM 70212 (DQ168584) 100 5
ADL082 5% Streptomyces aidingensis TRM46012 (HQ286045) 100 6
ADL083 5% Streptomyces ambofaciens ATCC 23877 (CP012382) 99.31 2
ADL084 5% Streptomyces asenjonii KNN 35.1b (LT621750) 98.91 3
ADL086 5% Streptomyces coelicoflavus NBRC 15399 (AB184650) 99.79 3
ADL087 5% Streptomyces fukangensis EGI 80050 (KF040416) 98.6 2
ADL088 5% Streptomyces griseoincarnatus LMG 19316 (AJ781321) 99.93 7
ADL090 5% Streptomyces xinghaiensis S187 (CP023202) 99.93 4
ADL091 5%/15% Virgibacillus sediminis YIM kkny3 (AY121430) 99.65 11
ADL092 5% Zhihengliuella somnathii JG 03 (EU937748) 99.17 2
XHU5135 15% Aidingimonas halophila BH017 (EU191906) 97.52 1

Fig 1. Phylogenetic tree of strain ADL014 and its near neighbors calculated from 16S rRNA gene sequences using Kimura’s evolutionary distance method (Kimura, 1980) and the neighbor-joining method of Saitou and Nei (1987).

Fig 1

Bar, 0.01 nucleotide substitutions per site.

These halophilic or halotolerant bacteria were compared to those deposited in the public database (EzBioCloud, https://www.ezbiocloud.net/identify). The bacteria isolated in this study displayed considerable diversity. The predominant phyla were Firmicutes (149 strains, 43.4%) and Actinobacteria (121 strains, 35.3%). The other bacterial isolates belonged to phyla Rhodothermaeota (5 strains, 1.5%) and Proteobacteria (68 strains, 19.8%). The isolates were distributed among 14 orders, namely, Actinopolysporales (26 strains), Alteromonadales (8 strains), Bacillaceae (149 strains), Balneolales (5 strains), Chromatiales (12 strains), Glycomycetales (2 strains), Jiangellales (3 strains), Micrococcales (8 strains), Micromonosporineae (5 strains), Oceanospirillales (45 strains), Pseudonocardiales (11 strains), Rhizobiales (3 strains), Streptomycetales (27 strains), and Streptosporangiales (26 strains), including 41 known genera (Tables 3 and 4). Other organisms (ADL013 and ADL023) could not be accurately identified to the genus level because of the lower homology (Table 3). Strain ADL013 exhibited 94.71% similarity to the 16S rRNA gene sequence of Alteribacillus persepolensis HS136, and the hybridization values of 11.3±2.1% to each other; and strain ADL023 exhibited 91.14% similarity to the 16S rRNA gene sequence of Caldalkalibacillus uzonensis JW/WZ-YB58, and the hybridization values of 8.3±1.7% to each other. Phylogenetic analysis also showed that strain ADL013 and ADL023 can be distinguished from representatives of genera in the family Bacillaceae, and two strains formed a distinct lineage within family Bacillaceae, respectively (Fig 2). Meanwhile, two strains had such low degrees of sequence similarity, suggesting that these may represent two novel genera of Bacillaceae. In the study, Halomonas (42 strains, 12.2%), Gracilibacillus (33 strains, 9.6%), Streptomyces (27 strains, 7.9%), Actinopolyspora (26 strains, 7.6%), Nocardiopsis (17 strains, 5.0%), Bacillus (12 strains, 4.4%), Aquisalimonas (12 strains, 3.5%), Marinococcus (11 strains, 3.2%), Virgibacillus (11 strains, 3.2%), and Sediminibacillus (11 strains, 3.2%) were some dominant group in sediment samples of Aiding Lake. The number of microorganisms in each of the other genus is relatively small (Table 3; Fig 3). For example, Anaerobacillus, Prauserella, and Ornithinibacillus include only one strain, respectively. To isolate halophilic or halotolerant bacteria in the sediments of Aiding Lake, the agar plates were supplemented with 5% or 15% (w/v) NaCl. Approximately 141 strains isolated from these media with 5% NaCl belonged to 25 different genera, and 202 strains isolated from the media using 15% NaCl belonged to 23 different genera (Table 3).

Table 4. Statistical analyses of the relationships between the taxa of the bacterial strains and the nine different media.

Medium No. of isolates Isolate taxon
Phylum Order Family Genus
A 27 Actinobacteria Micromonosporales Micromonosporaceae Micromonospora
Pseudonocardiales Pseudonocardiaceae Prauserella
Streptomycetales Streptomycetaceae Streptomyces
Streptosporangiales Nocardiopsaceae Nocardiopsis
B 24 Actinobacteria Actinopolysporales Actinopolysporaceae Actinopolyspora
Micromonosporales Micromonosporaceae Micromonospora
Pseudonocardiales Pseudonocardiaceae Saccharopolyspora
Streptomycetales Streptomycetaceae Streptomyces
Firmicutes Bacillales Bacillaceae Halobacillus
Proteobacteria Alteromonadales Planococcaceae Planococcus
Alteromonadaceae Marinobacter
C 57 Actinobacteria Actinopolysporales Actinopolysporaceae Actinopolyspora
Glycomycetales Glycomycetaceae Glycomyces
Micrococcales Micrococcaceae Kocuria
Nesterenkonia
Pseudonocardiales Promicromonosporaceae Myceligenerans
Streptosporangiales Pseudonocardiaceae Saccharomonospora
Nocardiopsaceae Haloactinospora
Firmicutes Bacillales Bacillaceae Salinifilum
Anaerobacillus
Jeotgalibacillus
Pontibacillus
D 25 Actinobacteria Actinopolysporales Actinopolysporaceae Actinopolyspora
Pseudonocardiales Pseudonocardiaceae Longimycelium
Streptomycetales Streptomycetaceae Streptomyces
Streptosporangiales Nocardiopsaceae Saccharomonospora
Nocardiopsis
Firmicutes Bacillales Bacillaceae Marinococcus
E 20 Rhodothermaeota Balneolales Balneolaceae Aliifodinibius
Firmicutes Bacillales Bacillaceae Bacillus
Staphylococcaceae Salinicoccus
F 57 Actinobacteria Pseudonocardiales Pseudonocardiaceae Haloechinothrix
Streptomycetales Streptomycetaceae Streptomyces
Streptosporangiales Nocardiopsaceae Marinactinospora
Nocardiopsis
Firmicutes Bacillales Bacillaceae Aquibacillus
Halobacillus
Proteobacteria Alteromonadales Marinobacter family Marinobacter
Oceanospirillales Halomonadaceae Halomonas
G 95 Actinobacteria Jiangellales Jiangellaceae Phytoactinopolyspora
Micrococcales Micrococcaceae Kocuria
Zhihengliuella
Streptosporangiales Nocardiopsaceae Nocardiopsis
Firmicutes Bacillales Bacillaceae Bacillus
Aquibacillus
Filobacillus
Gracilibacillus
Ornithinibacillus
Piscibacillus
Virgibacillus
Proteobacteria Chromatiales Nitrococcus family Aquisalimonas
Oceanospirillales Halomonadaceae Halomonas
H 24 Firmicutes Bacillales Bacillaceae Alteribacillus
Gracilibacillus
ADL023
Proteobacteria Rhizobiales Phyllobacteriaceae Nitratireductor
Oceanospirillales Halomonadaceae Aidingimonas
I 14 Firmicutes Bacillales Bacillaceae Gracilibacillus
Sinobaca
ADL013

Fig 2. Phylogenetic dendrogram for taxa of the family Bacillaceae reconstructed using the neighbor-joining method based on almost complete 16S rRNA gene sequences to display the taxonomic position of strain ADL013 or strain ADL023.

Fig 2

Numbers at nodes indicate levels of bootstrap support (%) based on neighbor-joining analysis of 1000 resampled datasets; only values above 50% are shown. Bar, 0.01 nucleotide substitutions per site.

Fig 3. Percentage of isolated strains in each genus.

Fig 3

3.3 Bacterial isolates from different media

To obtain additional bacterial groups, the sediment samples from Aiding Lake were isolated using nine different media (Table 1). Five class of bacteria, namely, Actinobacteria, Bacilli, Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Balneolia, including 14 orders, 17 families, and 43 genera (including 2 novel genera) were obtained (Table 4). Most of the bacterial groups were isolated using microcrystalline cellulose-sorbitol agar (G), and 13 bacterial genera (Aquibacillus, Aquisalimonas, Bacillus, Filobacillus, Gracilibacillus, Halomonas, Kocuria, Nocardiopsis, Ornithinibacillus, Phytoactinopolyspora, Piscibacillus, Virgibacillus, and Zhihengliuella) were isolated. At the same time, microcrystalline cellulose-proline agar (C), stachyose tetrahydrate-alanine agar (F), casein hydrolysate acid-starch agar (B), and glycerin-asparagine agar (D) resulted in relatively efficient isolations for 11 genera (Actinopolyspora, Anaerobacillus, Glycomyces, Haloactinospora, Jeotgalibacillus, Kocuria, Myceligenerans, Nesterenkonia, Pontibacillus, Saccharomonospora, and Salinifilum), 8 genera (Aquibacillus, Halobacillus, Haloechinothrix, Halomonas, Marinactinospora, Marinobacter, Nocardiopsis, and Streptomyces), 7 genera (Actinopolyspora, Halobacillus, Marinobacter, Micromonospora, Planococcus, Saccharopolyspora, and Streptomyces), and 6 genera (Actinopolyspora, Longimycelium, Marinococcus, Nocardiopsis, Saccharomonospora, and Streptomyces), respectively. Only two known genera (Gracilibacillus and Sinobaca) and one novel genus (ADL013) were isolated using yeast extract-glycerin agar (I). The results of isolation using the other media are shown in Table 4. From the number of isolated strains, 95, 57, and 57 strains were isolated using media G, F, and C, respectively, and the number of strains isolated from media A, B, D, E, H and I was relatively small (Tables 3 and 4). In addition, the bacterial diversity recovered using different media also varied considerably. Medium G had the best recoverability, with 14 of the total bacterial genera recovered. Media I and E showed the lowest recoverability at the genus level (Table 4). In short, to obtain more bacterial resources, it is also necessary to develop different types of media.

3.4 Bacterial isolates from different sediments and Pearson correlation

The number of isolates of bacteria recovered from three sediments (S1, S2, and S3) are different.164, 88 and 91 strains were isolated from sediment samples S1, S2, and S3, respectively (S1 Table). In sediment sample S1, 28 bacterial genera were isolated, while another 27, and 24 bacterial genera were isolated from samples S2 and S3, respectively (S1 Table). Although there was a small difference in the number of genera per sample, there was a large difference in the type of genera per sample (S1 Table). For example, Haloactinospora, Nesterenkonia, Phytoactinopolyspora, Saccharomonospora, Saccharopolyspora, ADL013, and ADL023 were isolated only from sample S1; Glycomyces, Haloechinothrix, Myceligenerans, Ornithinibacillus, and Prauserella were isolated only from sample S2; meanwhile, Anaerobacillus, Kocuria, Salinifilum, and Zhihengliuella were also isolated only from sample S3 (S1 Table). In addition, Actinopolyspora, Aquibacillus, Aquisalimonas, Bacillus, Gracilibacillus, Halomonas, Marinococcus, Nocardiopsis, Salinicoccus, Streptomyces, and Virgibacillus were distributed in all three samples (S1 Table). The results showed that the number and diversity of bacteria were different even in different sites from the same salt lake.

Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that Na+, K+, Cl- and HCO3- were mainly positively correlated with the relative abundances of Actinopolyspora, Gracilibacillus, Pontibacillus, Aidingimonas, Aquisalimonas, Halobacillus, Bacillus, Haloactinospora, Nesterenkonia, Phytoactinopolyspora, Saccharomonospora, Saccharopolyspora, ADL013, ADL023, Alteribacillus, and Nocardiopsis, respectively (Table 5). Mn2+ was mainly positively correlated with the relative abundances of Aquibacillus, Filobacillus, and Marinococcus but negatively correlated with Micromonospora. Fe2+ was mainly positively correlated with the relative abundances of Marinactinospora. SO42- was mainly positively correlated with the relative abundances of Salinicoccus but negatively correlated with Piscibacillus (Table 5).

Table 5. Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and p-value for isolated bacterial genera.

Only correlations with p ≤ 0.05 are shown.

Genus Correlation with p-Value r
Actinopolyspora Na+ 0.04 0.99
Aidingimonas K+ 0.02 0.99
Aliifodinibius SO42- 0.02 0.99
Alteribacillus HCO3- 0.04 0.99
Aquibacillus Mn2+ 0.00 1.00
Aquisalimonas K+ 0.02 0.99
Bacillus Cl- 0.02 1.00
Filobacillus Mn2+ 0.00 1.00
Gracilibacillus Na+ 0.04 0.99
Haloactinospora Cl- 0.02 1.00
Halobacillus K+ 0.05 0.99
Marinactinospora Fe2+ 0.01 –1.00
Marinococcus Mn2+ 0.00 1.00
Micromonospora Mn2+ 0.00 –1.00
Nesterenkonia Cl- 0.02 1.00
Nocardiopsis pH, HCO3- 0.04, 0.02 –0.99, 1.00
Phytoactinopolyspora Cl- 0.02 1.00
Piscibacillus SO42- 0.02 –0.99
Pontibacillus Na+, Cl-, 0.05, 0.05 0.99, 0.99
Saccharomonospora Cl- 0.02 1.00
Saccharopolyspora Cl- 0.02 1.00
Salinicoccus SO42- 0.02 0.99
ADL013 Cl- 0.02 1.00
ADL023 Cl- 0.02 1.00

4 Discussion

Bacterial diversity in Aiding Lake was based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences, which was relatively higher than other salt lakes at the genus level. For example, sequencing of 16S rRNA genes indicated the presence of members of bacterial genera Bacillus, Halomonas, Pseudomonas, Exiguobacterium, Vibrio, Paenibacillus, and Planococcus in the salt lake La Sal del Rey, in extreme South Texas (USA) [33]. Previous studies also have shown that bacterial diversity in other saline lake ecosystems were mainly composed of the bacteria (including 16 genera: Bacillus, Chromohalobacter, Gracilibacillus, Halobacillus, Halolactibacillus, Halomonas, Halovibrio, Idiomarina, Oceanobacillus, Piscibacillus, Salicola, Salimicrobium, Salinicoccus, Staphylococcus, Thalassobacillus, and Virgibacillus) [34, 35]. Notably, some rare genera from the sediments of Aiding Lake such as Aidingimonas, Aliifodinibius, Filobacillus, Haloechinothrix, Jeotgalibacillus, Longimycelium, Myceligenerans, Ornithinibacillus, Phytoactinopolyspora, and Piscibacillus were discovered in the present study. In addition, phylum Rhodothermaeota was detected for the first time in sediment samples from a salt lake.

The richness and diversity of actinobacteria isolated from Aiding Lake in the present study were relatively high, consisting of eight orders (Actinopolysporales, Glycomycetales, Jiangellales, Micrococcales, Micromonosporales, Pseudonocardiales, Streptomycetales and Streptosporangiales). Wu et al. (2008) have found six actinobacterial orders using pure culture in salt lake, hypersaline spring, and salt mine of China, and these orders were Actinopolysporales, Glycomycetales, Micrococcales, Pseudonocardiales, Streptomycetales, and Streptosporangiales [36]. Our results suggested that the diversity of actinobacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences of strains from Aiding Lake were more diverse at the genus level than those reported in saline environment. For examples, twelve genera, namely Actinomadura, Actinomycetospora, Microbispora, Micromonospora, Mycobaterium, Nocardia, Nocardiopsis, Pseudonocardia, Saccharopolyspora, Sphaerosporangium, Streptomyces, and Streptosporangium were isolated from marine sponges in Florida, USA [37], and ten genera, including Actinotalea, Arthrobacter, Brachybacterium, Brevibacterium, Kocuria, Kytococcus, Microbacterium, Micrococcus, Mycobacterium, and Pseudonocardia from Arctic marine sediments were obtained by culture-dependent approaches [38]. Atika et al. isolated fifty-two halophilic actinomycetes belonging to the Actinopolyspora, Nocardiopsis, Saccharomonospora, Saccharopolyspora, and Streptomonospora genera from Saharan saline soils of Algeria [39]. Ronoh et al. identified four genera (Dietzia, Microbacterium, Nocardia, and Rhodococcus) of actinobacteria from Lake Magadi, Kenya [40]. However, 18 genera, namely Actinopolyspora, Glycomyces, Haloactinospora, Haloechinothrix, Kocuria, Longimycelium, Marinactinospora, Micromonospora, Myceligenerans, Nesterenkonia, Nocardiopsis, Phytoactinopolyspora, Prauserella, Saccharomonospora, Saccharopolyspora, Salinifilum, Streptomyces, and Zhihengliuella were isolated in this study. Therefore, bacterial diversity may differ between different sample collection regions and different saline samples. Of course, it is also possible that the diversity of isolated bacteria may vary due to different media or isolated technology.

In addition to strains ADL013, ADL014, and ADL023 are novel species because of low similarity, the 16S rRNA gene sequences of strain XHU5135 showed 97.52% identities to the nearest neighbors, Aidingimonas halophila YIM 90637 [41]. Although it showed higher 16S rRNA gene similarities (97.52%) to the closest recognized strains, DNA-DNA hybridization experiments revealed that levels of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain XHU 5135 and Aidingimonas halophila YIM 90637 were 23.3± 2.8%. This values is below the 70% cut-off point recommended for recognition of genomic species [42]. Thus, strain XHU 5135 represents a novel species of the genus Aidingimonas. The neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences of strain XHU 5135 and other related species is shown in Fig 4 with high levels of bootstrap support. At present, we isolated and cultured 71 species (including 4 novel genera) of 43 bacterial genera (including 2 novel genera). To our knowledge, this is the first study to recover such a high diversity of culturable bacteria from salt lake sediments. In addition, Aidingimonas halophila YIM 90637 [41], Streptomyces aidingensis TRM46012 [43], Longimycelium tulufanense TRM 46004 [44], Salinifilum aidingensis TRM 46074 [45], and Gracilibacillus aidingensis YIM 98001 [46] were also isolated from Aiding Lake, and above strains have been characterized as some novel species. These results indicate that there are potentially unique, novel sources of bacteria in Aiding Lake.

Fig 4. Neighbour-joining tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, showing the phylogenetic relationships of the novel isolate XHU 5135 and related taxa.

Fig 4

Numbers at nodes are bootstrap percentages based on 1000 replicates. Bar, 0.01 nucleotide substitutions per site.

The dry lake has a high NaCl content. However, a large number of bacteria are isolated using the media employed a lower content of NaCl (5%). Possible reasons for such inconsistency could be twofold: (1) bacteria may tolerate a large range of salinity. For example, Halomonas xinjiangensis TRM 0175 could grow at 0–20% NaCl [47]; (2) surface layer of the soil samples have a high salinity, while the other parts have a low salinity.

Generally, bacterial diversity in extreme environments is relatively low. Therefore, according to the differences in the utilization of carbon and nitrogen sources by microorganisms, as well as the high repetition rate of microorganisms isolated from conventional media, we designed some media containing rare carbon and nitrogen source (microcrystalline cellulose, glycerin, stachyose tetrahydrate, sorbitol, Beta-Cyclodextrin, casein hydrolysate acid, proline, arginine, asparagine, or alanine) in the hope of mining more novel species and presenting better bacterial diversity. To our satisfaction, an unexpectedly high bacterial diversity was observed from sediment samples from Aiding Lake. Forty-three bacterial genera were identified. The results indicate that it is feasible to use rare carbon and nitrogen source media to mine more species, and some strains might represent a valuable source of new species, thereby providing a new reference for further understanding bacterial diversity in hypersaline environments. This study also suggested that the diversity of bacteria isolated from Aiding Lake is largely dependent on the isolation media. Obviously, the number and diversity of bacteria isolated from different media are different in this study. Although media I and E showed the lowest recoverability at the genus level, the microorganism of Sinobaca genus was only isolated using medium I, and a novel strain ADL013 was found using the medium too. At the same time, the microorganism of phylum Rhodothermaeota was detected only using medium E. Of all the media, the most actinobacterial genera (7) were isolated from medium C. This result suggests that medium C is suitable for the isolation of actinomycetes in sediments of salt lake. In addition, the most abundant bacterial genera were obtained from medium G (Microcrystalline cellulose-sorbitol agar), this may indicate that these bacteria have a special utilization for microcrystalline cellulose, or sorbitol, or Beta-Cyclodextrin, but at present the mechanism of why medium G is suitable for the isolation of bacteria from Aiding lake is unclear. No universal medium or uniform isolation technology has been established for microbial resources around the world. Therefore, there is a need to develop novel isolation media or isolation techniques to better mine non-culturable bacterial resources.

Supporting information

S1 Fig. Geographic location of Aiding Lake.

(TIF)

S1 Table. The number of isolates recovered from each sediment.

(DOCX)

Data Availability

All relevant data are within the paper. The sequences of the bacterial isolates reported in this study have been deposited to GenBank (Accession no. MK818765- MK818834, MK296404).

Funding Statement

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 30660005) and Office of education in Sichuan Province, China (Project Nos. 13205688, 13ZB0024) supported this study. Chunhui Project for Ministry of Education of China (Project No. 191649).

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Decision Letter 0

Luis Angel Maldonado Manjarrez

23 Dec 2019

PONE-D-19-20101

Isolation and Diversity of Sediment Bacteria in the Hypersaline Aiding Lake, China

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Reviewer #1: This manuscript describes the isolation of bacteria from sediments collected from a hypersaline lake. A diversity analysis of these bacterial isolates based on the evolutionary relatedness of the 16S rRNA gene was also performed. Overall, the study presents new and interesting data with regards to the potential to access novel species and genera via a culture-based approach and highlights the value of exploring environments that are unique and underexplored. Here are some comments and recommendations for the authors:

1. Abstract: It would be helpful to the reader to understand the aim of the study at the outset and therefore should be included in the Abstract.

2. Line 30: Insert the word ‘supplemented’ before ‘with 5% of 15% (w/v) NaCl’

3. Line 31: The use of the word ‘significantly’ implies statistical analyses – if any were performed, please provide details in the methodology section and provide the p-value.

4. Line 37: Values below 20 is typically written out in full, therefore it should be ‘…two novel genera…’ and ‘…four novel species…’

5. Line 38: Since reference is made to more than one genus, the plural, ‘genera’, should be used.

6. Line 53: The sentence is ambiguous, implying that the novel species described are different forms of culture-dependent methods. To avoid the ambiguity, it is recommended that the sentence should be changed to: ‘…have been described using culture-dependent methods: Brevibacterium salitolerans…’

7. Line 59: It is mentioned that the Turpan Basin is the hottest region in China – can you provide a temperature range to provide insight into the environment from which the samples were collected?

8. Line 60: Please provide a reference to support the statements regarding temperature and salinity.

9. Line 62: ‘bacteria diversity’ should be ‘bacterial diversity’

10. Site description and sample collection: Are three sediment samples sufficient to serve as representative samples of the whole lake area? If they were not meant to be representative samples, then I would suggest changing the manuscript title to reflect this.

11. Line 77: Sediments will not dissolve in distilled water – rather state that the sediments ‘were resuspended in distilled water’.

12. Line 86: What was the rationale behind the design of the different types of isolation media? Even though emphasis is made that these different types of media allowed for access to unique bacterial isolates, the significance of this is not really discussed or elaborated on in the manuscript. The section on this in the Discussion should therefore be expanded on. In addition, why was the particular pre-treatment method employed in this study? Do the authors feel that this also contributed towards the isolation of a wider variety of bacterial strain?

13. Lines 87-88: Stating that ‘The compositions of the nine media are shown in Table 1’ is redundant and should be deleted. Reference to the media have already been made in line 86.

14. Line 90: Is there any particular reason why an incubation temperature of 37�C was used? It is 12-14 degrees higher than the temperature recorded for the areas where the sediment samples were collected.

15. Line 111: The use of a 99% sequence identity based on 16S rRNA gene sequences as the basis for clustering into one operational taxonomic unit poses great risk of clustering isolates that are novel. It is often found in actinobacterial genera in particular where unique species share a high 16S rRNA sequence similarity, sometimes even 100%. An alternative method of dereplication should’ve been employed – either a sequence-based method (use of another taxonomic marker) or culture-based (phenotypic differences).

16. Lines 119-125: Does the Geology of the region support the differences in the physicochemical properties of the three sediment samples? Is there any correlation between the isolates (genus/family) and the sediment sample isolated from?

17. Lines 145-148: Make sure that all mention of ‘strains’ are correct – in some instances, the singular, ‘strain’ is used instead of the plural form.

18. Lines 155-156: Correct the sentence structure – ‘…suggesting that these may represent two novel genera of Bacillaceae’.

19. Line 170: ’17 families’ not ’17 family’.

20. Line 171-172: A statement is made here that most bacterial groups were isolated on one specific medium – this needs to be expanded on in the discussion section.

21. Line 184: ‘…one novel genera’ should read ‘…one novel genus’.

22. Line 195: ‘…16S rDNA…’ should be ‘…16S rRNA genes…’

23. In the discussion section, mention is made of the various genera isolated from other types of salt lakes. However, different media and isolation techniques would’ve been used to that of the study reported here. Comparisons can therefore not be made among these studies. Did any of these studies report on community analysis?

24. Lines 215-216: ‘Micromonospora’ is mentioned twice.

25. Lines 229-230: See comment above drawing comparisons.

26. The aspect that should be highlighted in the discussion section, is the value of the different media types in accessing different genera/species. Are there any reasons why certain genera were isolated on specific media? Any correlation to the physicochemical properties of the sediment samples?

27. Please make sure that the manuscript is edited for grammar and language usage. Some examples are listed above, but this is not a comprehensive evaluation.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript (MS) by Guan and colleagues describes the isolation of novel bacteria from a hypersaline lake in China. The MS is interesting but IMHO contains several flaws that require attention before it can be accepted for publication as I point below.

General comments.

1. During the MS when referring to the name and/or lists of different genera, the authours sometimes use an alphabetical order and sometimes they don’t. They should be more homogenous through the entire MS. For instance, the abstract is not in alphabetical order but in lines 172 to 174 the names of the genera mentioned are precisely in alphabetical oder. It is nt critical to use one or another but homogeneity would definitively be preferred.

2. It should be clear for the authors that not every reader ifs familiar with the geography of China. Hence, I would stongly suggest that for the final versión of the MS, the authours include a map of China showing the exact location of the lake. This can be referred in section 2.1 Site descriptions and sample collection. In addition, is there any reference for the sentence “The high salinity, low nutrients level, dry climate, and high UV intensity makes it an extreme environment.” (Lines 69-70). If there is any, then it should be added to the MS.

3. Section 2.2. There is a bunch an wide range of seletive isolation media and the authors claim that they used 9 (line 86, Table 1). However when checking Table 1, all but one (ie. eight) are media “From this study”. This is intriguing because when other academics might check the MS in it final form they can argue why and/or how these eight media were chosen since this is not included nor mentioned anywhere in the current form of the MS. Therefore, I believe that the authours should add a line and/or sentence and/or paragraph indicating why and how these media was chosen for the study.

4. It is not clear to me why there are only 70 sequences deposited in GenBank (MK818765-MK818834 = 69 sequences plus MK296404 = 70) if the authors mentioned that they isolated 343 bacteria. That is only a mere 20%. If the identifiction of the bacteria is purely based on 16S rDNA gene sequencing then I think they should, at least, submit 50-60% of their sequences to GenBank and not saying that there is diversity but not providing the corresponding sequences for their isolates.

5. Section 3.1. According to the results from the authors, they sampled in three different places and provide the information in table 2. In the MS they also indicate that the conditions of each sample are different and this is very well exemplified by the high bacterial diversity. Since the authors employed 9 different media in the study, then I would strongly suggest a table indicating the number of isolates recovered from each sediment. Perhaps there is one sediment that showed a higher degree of diversity over the others. These would also help the authors to decide how many other sequences can be submitted to GenBank rather than submitting all of them as I suggested for point number 4.

6. Also, how did the authors checked for “duplicating strains”? Again, is this only base don the 16S rDNA gene sequencing of the isolates? This is indicted in Section 3.2, lines 127-128.

7. I am not convinced by the fact that a 97% similarity (less) refers to a different species. There are examples of either a novel species or a putative novel genera. This should be handle with care. If they haven’t done so, then I suggest that the authors also genome sequence some of the most interesting isolates (ie the ones that are the most different ones acoording to EZBiocloud) and then make or at least mention DNA-DNA in silico (available from the DSMZ website) to highlight this point. However I would strongly object adding the full genome sequencing information to this MS or it would definitively become a never ending story.

8. Section 3.2 lines 143 – 148. If the reader is not familiar with families and genera, these lines become extremely confusing because there is n indication of which genera is either Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria or Rhodothermaeota. This is definitively a very interesting paragraph because it certainly highlights the diversity found in the study but there is no separation between any phyla thus making it difficult and confusing.

Due to this number of general comments, then I find the Discussion section hard to follow. Besides, the English should definitively be improved in order to exploit the full potential of this MS as there are not too many studies on extreme lake environments.

I should mention that I find the MS very interesting but I am afraid in its present form I would be against its publication mostly because of its current form. It can certainly hav a higher impact if it is re-arranged/presented in a better way and hopefully the authors would be willing to incorporate all of the comments.

Minor comments.

1. Section 2.3, line 97. I believe reference 25 must be the one for the EZBiocloud website. Apparently some references are misplaced causing confusion because also reference 26 is not the one for the sentence.

2. Section 2.3, line 102. How many base pairs were obtained for the 16S rDNA gene sequence? This is not indicated or are the authors assuming that anyone will check the size of the sequences deposited in the GenBank database?

3. Line 231, shouldn’t it be “are novel” instead of “as novel”?

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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PLoS One. 2020 Jul 10;15(7):e0236006. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236006.r003

Author response to Decision Letter 0


6 Feb 2020

Dear Agnes Pap,

Thank you so much for your kind help. We have replied them item by item based on your comments. According to the actual needs, we modified the relevant content submitted online. The sequences of the bacterial isolates reported in this study have been deposited to GenBank (Accession no. MK818765- MK818834, MK296404). And the Table 5 in our text have been added the revised MS (L214, L218). We hope our reply is satisfactory.

We sincerely hope that our paper can be published in PLOS ONE. If you need any more information concerning the manuscript, please don’t hesitate to contact with us by e-mail.

Best Wishes

Tong-Wei Guan

Attachment

Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers 2.6.docx

Decision Letter 1

Paula V Morais

29 Jun 2020

Isolation and Diversity of Sediment Bacteria in the Hypersaline Aiding Lake, China

PONE-D-19-20101R1

Dear Dr. Guan,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Paula V Morais, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

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The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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Reviewer #1: No

Acceptance letter

Paula V Morais

1 Jul 2020

PONE-D-19-20101R1

Isolation and Diversity of Sediment Bacteria in the Hypersaline Aiding Lake, China

Dear Dr. Guan:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org.

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Associated Data

    This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

    Supplementary Materials

    S1 Fig. Geographic location of Aiding Lake.

    (TIF)

    S1 Table. The number of isolates recovered from each sediment.

    (DOCX)

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: response to PLOS ONE.docx

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers 2.6.docx

    Data Availability Statement

    All relevant data are within the paper. The sequences of the bacterial isolates reported in this study have been deposited to GenBank (Accession no. MK818765- MK818834, MK296404).


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