Patterns of Yeast Diversity Distribution and its Drivers in Rhizosphere Soil of Hami Melon Orchards in Different Regions of Xinjiang
Abstract Background: Yeast is an essential type of microscopic fungus found in the soil. It is vital to develop the resources of yeast to gain a better understanding of its role and potential in maintaining soil ecological balance and providing microbial resources. A special ecological environment is required for the evolution of yeast species. Xinjiang in China has unique climatic conditions with abundant melon and fruit resources. Here, we aimed to evaluate the diversity, community structure, and relationship between yeast species and environmental factors in Hami melon orchards in different regions of Xinjiang, China.Results: We used Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing analysis to cluster 29,090 yeast sequences into 87 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with 97% sequence similarity and 47 genera and 73 species. Most sequences (93.16%) belonged to the Basidiomycota; only a few (6.84%) belonged to Ascomycota. We detected 10 dominant genera and 11 dominant species with relative abundances > 1% in all sample sequences. We found that the yeast communities were significantly more diverse in the eastern Xinjiang region than in the southern and northern Xinjiang regions. The most dominant genera in the southern, eastern, and northern Xinjiang regions were Pseudozyma (54.77%), Solicoccozyma (28.6%), and Filobasidium (88.08%), respectively. Redundancy analysis (RDA) results indicated that the main factors influencing the structure of yeast in the study sites were CO, total phosphorus (TP), and total potassium (TK) of the soil.Conclusion: Our results suggest the presence of diversity and structural differences in yeast species among the southern, eastern, and northern Xinjiang regions. Eastern Xinjiang had the highest community diversity with a more even distribution of species. Differences in the geographical environment and the physicochemical properties of soils were probably the key factors driving yeast diversity and community structure.