Investigation of diverse bacteria in cloud water at Mt. Tai, China

Caihong Xu (1) , Min Wei (1) , Jianmin Chen (1) , Xiao Sui (1) , Chao Zhu (1) , Jiarong Li (1) , Lulu Zheng (2) , Guodong Sui (2) , Weijun Li (1) , Wenxing Wang (1) , Qingzhu Zhang (1) , Abdelwahid S Mellouki (3, 2)

1 School of Environmental Science and Engineering
2 LAP3 - Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention
3 ICARE - Institut de Combustion, Aérothermique, Réactivité et Environnement

Bacteria are abundant in atmospheric water phase with the potential to influence atmospheric processes and human health, yet relatively little information is known about the bacterial characteristics at high altitudes. Here we investigated the bacterial community by high throughput sequencing in 24 cloud water samples collected from September 26 to October 31, at the summit of Mt. Tai (36°15′ N, 117°06′ E, 1534 m a.s.l) in China. Diverse bacterial population were identified and the gram-negative bacteria contributed the majority of total bacteria including Proteobacteria (81.6%) and Bacteroidetes (3.9%), followed by gram-positive bacteria Firmicutes (7.1%) and Actinobacteria (2.3%). These gram-negative taxa mainly inhabited in leaf-surface and cold environments. Meanwhile bacteria involved in the cloud condensation nuclei and ice nuclei formation were observed such as Sphingomonas (6.7%), Pseudomonas (4.1%), and Bacillus (1.1%). In addition, Sphingmonas was more active than that in daytime and participated in the cloud chemistry process. Meanwhile O3 and SO2 critically contributed to the variation of bacterial community. It is the first report on the bacterial community structure of cloud water over Asian area. Our results can serve as an important reference for environmental scientists, and biologists.

Mots clés: Cloud water Bioaerosol Bacterial community 16S rRNA sequencing

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie; Systématique, phylogénie et taxonomie; Bactériologie

Caihong Xu, Min Wei, Jianmin Chen, Xiao Sui, Chao Zhu, et al.. Investigation of diverse bacteria in cloud water at Mt. Tai, China. Science of the Total Environment, 2017, 580, pp.258-265. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.12.081⟩. ⟨hal-01740453⟩