Metagenomic insights into microbial structure and metabolism in alpine permafrost on the Tibetan Plateau

Permafrost, characterized by its frozen soil, serves as a unique and ecologically significant habitat for diverse microorganisms. Understanding the intricacies of their community structure and functional attributes is crucial for predicting the response of permafrost ecosystems to climate change. However, large-scale evidence regarding microbial profiles and their differences across soil strata remains limited. Here we analyze microbial structure and metabolic potential based on 16S rRNA and metagenomic data obtained from a ∼1,000 km permafrost transect on the Tibetan Plateau. We find that microbial alpha diversity declines, while beta diversity (spatial variation) increases along the soil profile. Microbial assemblages are primarily governed by dispersal limitation and drift, with the importance of drift decreases, and dispersal limitation increases along the soil depth. We also observe that functional genes related to reduction reactions (e.g., ferric iron reduction, dissimilatory nitrate reduction, denitrification, and polysulfide reduction) are enriched in the permafrost layer. Taxa involving in redox reactions, especially for the alternative electron accepting processes, are more diverse and contribute highly to community-level metabolic profiles in subsurface and permafrost layer, reflecting lower redox potential and more complicated trophic strategies for microorganisms in deeper soils. These findings provide comprehensive insights into the large-scale stratigraphic profiles of microbial community structure and biogeochemical processes and laying the groundwork for future endeavors that elucidate microbial responses to environmental change in permafrost regions.Data structure:├── 16S ├── metadata.txt ├── otus.nwk ├── otutab.txt ├── otutab_rare.txt └── taxonomy.txt└── Functional genes ├── eggnog.KEGG_ko.raw.counts.txt └── eggnog.KEGG_ko.raw.tpm.txt└── Metabolic ├── bin_abundance_table.tab ├── METABOLIC_result.xlsx ├── MW_score_result.csv └── tax.txt └── Supplementary Data ├── Supplementary Data 1.xlsx ├── Supplementary Data 2.xlsx └── Supplementary Data 3.xlsx