Benefiting from the rapid development of environmental DNA(eDNA) technologies, sedimentary DNA(sedDNA)emerges as a promising tool for monitoring plant compositions in remote regions. The Tibetan Plateau(TP), renowned ...Benefiting from the rapid development of environmental DNA(eDNA) technologies, sedimentary DNA(sedDNA)emerges as a promising tool for monitoring plant compositions in remote regions. The Tibetan Plateau(TP), renowned for its harsh environment and numerous ponds and lakes, presents a potentially demanding region for the application of sedDNA on vegetation investigations. Here, we used the g and h universal primers for the P6 loop region of the chloroplast trn L(UAA)intron to amplify plant DNA in surface sediments from 59 ponds and small lakes on the southwestern TP. The applicability and limitations of using plant DNA metabarcoding for modern vegetation monitoring and palaeo-vegetation reconstructions have been assessed by comparing sedDNA, pollen, and vegetation survey data. Our results showed that plant DNA metabarcoding recorded 186 terrestrial taxa, of which 30.1% can be identified at the species level. The plant sedDNA approach can effectively disclose the dominant plant taxa(including Asteraceae, Cyperaceae and Poaceae) and significant vegetation assemblages in the vicinity of the investigated sites. The number of taxa and taxonomic resolution of plant sedDNA exceeded that of pollen analysis(75 taxa detected, 5.3% can be identified at species level). Unlike pollen that retains a broad spectrum of regional plant signals(including Pinus and Artemisia), plant sedDNA mirrors very local plants, underscoring its utility in local vegetation monitoring and reconstructions. To conclude, plant DNA metabarcoding of(small) lake sediments warrant increased attention in the future for local vegetation monitoring and reconstructions on the TP.展开更多
Plant environmental DNA extracted from lacustrine sediments(sedimentary DNA,sedDNA)has been increasingly used to investigate past vegetation changes and human impacts at a high taxonomic resolution.However,the represe...Plant environmental DNA extracted from lacustrine sediments(sedimentary DNA,sedDNA)has been increasingly used to investigate past vegetation changes and human impacts at a high taxonomic resolution.However,the representation of vegetation communities surrounding the lake is still unclear.In this study,we compared plant sedDNA metabarcoding and pollen assemblages from 27 lake surface-sediment samples collected from alpine meadow on the central-eastern Tibetan Plateau to investigate the representation of sedDNA data.In general,the identified components of sedDNA are consistent with the counted pollen taxa and local plant communities.Relative to pollen identification,sedDNA data have higher taxonomic resolution,thus providing a potential approach for reconstructing past plant diversity.The sedDNA signal is strongly influenced by local plants while rarely affected by exogenous plants.Because of the overrepresentation of local plants and PCR bias,the abundance of sedDNA sequence types is very variable among sites,and should be treated with caution when investigating past vegetation cover and climate based on sedDNA data.Our finding suggests that sedDNA analysis can be a complementary approach for investigating the presence/absence of past plants and history of human land-use with higher taxonomic resolution.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42071107, 42177433)the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA2009000003)the Zhejiang Natural Science Foundation (Grant Nos. LY20D010002 and LY20D010003)。
文摘Benefiting from the rapid development of environmental DNA(eDNA) technologies, sedimentary DNA(sedDNA)emerges as a promising tool for monitoring plant compositions in remote regions. The Tibetan Plateau(TP), renowned for its harsh environment and numerous ponds and lakes, presents a potentially demanding region for the application of sedDNA on vegetation investigations. Here, we used the g and h universal primers for the P6 loop region of the chloroplast trn L(UAA)intron to amplify plant DNA in surface sediments from 59 ponds and small lakes on the southwestern TP. The applicability and limitations of using plant DNA metabarcoding for modern vegetation monitoring and palaeo-vegetation reconstructions have been assessed by comparing sedDNA, pollen, and vegetation survey data. Our results showed that plant DNA metabarcoding recorded 186 terrestrial taxa, of which 30.1% can be identified at the species level. The plant sedDNA approach can effectively disclose the dominant plant taxa(including Asteraceae, Cyperaceae and Poaceae) and significant vegetation assemblages in the vicinity of the investigated sites. The number of taxa and taxonomic resolution of plant sedDNA exceeded that of pollen analysis(75 taxa detected, 5.3% can be identified at species level). Unlike pollen that retains a broad spectrum of regional plant signals(including Pinus and Artemisia), plant sedDNA mirrors very local plants, underscoring its utility in local vegetation monitoring and reconstructions. To conclude, plant DNA metabarcoding of(small) lake sediments warrant increased attention in the future for local vegetation monitoring and reconstructions on the TP.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.42071107 and 41877459)the Mobility program of the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion(No.M-0359)+1 种基金the CAS Pioneer Hundred Talents Program(Xianyong Cao)the Russian Science Foundation(No.20-17-00110).
文摘Plant environmental DNA extracted from lacustrine sediments(sedimentary DNA,sedDNA)has been increasingly used to investigate past vegetation changes and human impacts at a high taxonomic resolution.However,the representation of vegetation communities surrounding the lake is still unclear.In this study,we compared plant sedDNA metabarcoding and pollen assemblages from 27 lake surface-sediment samples collected from alpine meadow on the central-eastern Tibetan Plateau to investigate the representation of sedDNA data.In general,the identified components of sedDNA are consistent with the counted pollen taxa and local plant communities.Relative to pollen identification,sedDNA data have higher taxonomic resolution,thus providing a potential approach for reconstructing past plant diversity.The sedDNA signal is strongly influenced by local plants while rarely affected by exogenous plants.Because of the overrepresentation of local plants and PCR bias,the abundance of sedDNA sequence types is very variable among sites,and should be treated with caution when investigating past vegetation cover and climate based on sedDNA data.Our finding suggests that sedDNA analysis can be a complementary approach for investigating the presence/absence of past plants and history of human land-use with higher taxonomic resolution.
