Seasonally and niche-differentiated diversity of active, dormant and dead microbes in coastal waters and surface sediments.

ABSTRACT: Metabarcoding surveys have rarely discriminated metabolically active, dormant, and dead microbes in environmental samples. This study employed a triple metabarcoding approach targeting environmental 16S and 18S rRNA genes and their transcripts to investigate the diversity of these physiologically distinct assemblages in the water column and surface sediments of a tropical coastal region. We found that dead bacteria, archaea, and microeukaryotes (relic DNA) accounted for ≤5% of the planktonic DNA pools but significantly contributed to ASV richness (53%, 50%, and 32%, respectively), while dominating in sediments (44% of sequence, 80% of richness). In viable assemblages, dormant microbes were rarer but enriched richness, particularly in the water (20%, 62%, and 28%, respectively). Collectivel

SUBMITTER: Yu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12484642 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature