Spatial distribution patterns of microbial Communities along Pearl Estuary revealed by pyrosequencing
A total of eight sites along Pearl Estuary were collected including three freshwater (P01, P03, P07) and five saltwater sites (A08, C2, C3, F412, F414) located upstream and downstream of Human Outlet, respectively (Figure 1, Table S1). Sediment samples were collected from 16 July to 12 August, 2012 using a box corer deployed from the R/V Tian Long. A subcore of 40cm length was collected in each of the five site (P01, P03, P07, A08, F412) and samples from 0-2, 18-20, 38-40 cm of each core were obtained using sterile 5 ml luer end removed syringes. Additionally, the surface sediments from 0-2 cm at another three site (C2, C3, F414) were collected. Bacterial universal primer 8F(5’-AGAGAGTTTGATCCTGGCTCAG-3’), 533R (5’-TTACCGCGGCTGCTGGCAC-3’)  and  archael universal primer 344F (5’-ACGGGGYGCAGCAGGCGCGA-3’), 915R (5’-GTGCTCCCCCGCCAATTCCT-3’) were used.For bacterial community, the following barcodes were used: P01S-B,AGTACTACTA;P01M-B,AGTAGACGTC;P01U-B,AGTCGTACAC;P03S-B,AGTGTAGTAG;P03M-B,ATAGTATACG;P03U-B,CAGTACGTAC; P07S-B,CGACGACGCG;P07M-B,CGACGAGTAC;P07U-B,CGATACTACG;A08S-B, CGTACGTCGA;A08M-B,CTACTCGTAG;A08U-B,GTACAGTACG;F412S-B,GTCGTACGTA;F412M-B, GTGTACGACG;F412U-B,ACACAGTGAG;C2S-B, ACACTCATAC; F414S-B, ACAGACTATA; C3S-B, ACAGACAGCG. For archaeal communtiy, the following barcodes were used: P01S-A,ACTGACTG; P01M-A,ACTGCTCT; P01U-A,AGACACAG; P03S-A,AGACGTCT;P03M-A,AGAGACTG;P03U-A, AGAGCTCT;P07S-A,AGCAGATG;P07M-A,AGCTACGT;P07U-A,AGTCACTG; A08S-A,AGTGACAG; A08M-A,ATATCGCG; A08U-A,ATCGTACG; F412S-A,ATGCTACG; F412M-A, CACAGTGT; F412U-A,CACTAGTG;F414S-A,CAGTAGAG;C2S-A,CACTCTGT;C3S-A,CAGACTGT.