Metagenomic Analysis Revealing the Impact of Water Contents on the Composition of Soil Microbial Communities and the Distribution of Major Ecological Functional Genes in Poyang Lake Wetland Soil

Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China, which boasts unique hydrological conditions and rich biodiversity. In this study, metagenomics technology was used to sequence the microbial genome of soil samples S1 (sedimentary), S2 (semi-submerged), and S3 (arid) with different water content from the Poyang Lake wetland; the results indicate that the three samples have different physicochemical characteristics and their microbial community structure and functional gene distribution are also different, resulting in separate ecological functions. The abundance of typical ANME archaea <i>Candidatus Menthanoperedens</i> and the high abundance of <i>mcrA</i> in S1 mutually demonstrate prominent roles in the methane anaerobic oxidation pathway during the methane cycle. In S2, the advantageous bacterial genus <i>Nitrospira</i> with ammonia oxidation function is validated by a large number of nitrification functional genes (<i>amoA, hao, nxrA</i>), manifesting in that it plays a monumental role in nitrification in the nitrogen cycle. In S3, the dominant bacterial genus <i>Nocardioides</i> confirms a multitude of antibiotic resistance genes, indicating their crucial role in resistance and their emphatic research value for microbial resistance issues. The results above have preliminarily proved the role of soil microbial communities as indicators predicting wetland ecological functions, which will help to better develop plans for restoring ecological balance and addressing climate change.