Studies on Bacterial Community Structure and Diversity of Three Solar Saltworks of Bohai Bay

BO Zhenxing;GAO Meirong;DENG Yuangao;WANG Zhenqian;SUI Liying;Tianjin Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Chemistry, College of Marine and Environmental Science, Tianjin University of Science and Technology;

Bohai Bay saltpond;;halophilic bacterium;;microbial diversity;;microbial community structure;;salinity

In this study, we investigated the structure and diversity of the bacterial community in brine from three Bohai Bay solar saltworks, namely Liaoning Fuzhouwan saltworks, Tianjin Hangu saltworks and Shandong Chengkou saltworks, by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis(DGGE) analysis of the PCR-amplified 16 S rRNA gene fragments. The results showed that the range-weighted richness(Rr) and Shannon-Wiener index(H) of the brine were closely related with brine salinity, and no remarkable correlation was observed with geological location. Rr value of brine in Hangu saltworks decreased with increasing salinity, whilst Rr value of brine from other two saltworks increased firstly and then decreased with increasing salinity. H' value of three saltworks had the similar tendency with Rr value. Sequencing the recovered specific DGGE bands showed that Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the major recognized bacterial phyla in Bohai Bay saltworks, and most of them were halophilic bacteria. Canonical correlation analysis also indicated that salinity is the main environmental factor affecting brine bacterial diversity while geographical location had less impact on it.