High throughput sequencing study of foliose lichen-associated bacterial communities from India

Lichens comprise highly diverse and complex microbial communities, the majority consisting of mycobiont, photobiont, Basidiomycetes yeast and bacteriobiont (internal bacterial communities). In this study, bacterial diversity of foliose lichen was reported. Next generation sequence (NGS) such as Illumina Sequencing (150*2) of 16S rRNA (V3 and V6 region) was used to delineate the bacterial communities associated with five foliose lichen samples. Bacterial sequences obtained from lichen samples suggested that, they harboured bacterial community with variable relative abundances. Among all bacterial communities, Alphaproteobacteria were dominant in all the tested lichen samples. The principal coordinate analysis, Venn and bar chart showed significant microbial changes between the different useful bacterial lineages across the lichens. The relative abundance of dominant and rare bacterial species found were varied, diverse, distinct and unique in each lichen. The Proteobacteria 48.19%, Actinobacteria 25.70%, Bacteroidetes 8.53%, Acidobacteria 9.36% and Chloroflexi 0.83% were predominant in all tested lichens. The present empirical study enhances the confirmed knowledge of bacterial diversity inevitably associated with lichens and is the first report on lichenized bacterial diversity and perhaps their potential possible role in lichen symbiosis in addition to phycobiont and mycobiont.

Automated summary

This study utilized next generation sequencing to investigate bacterial diversity in foliose lichens, revealing significant microbial variations between different lichens and diverse relative abundances of dominant and rare bacterial species. The predominant bacterial phyla found in all tested lichens were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria, and Chloroflexi.