aerosol metagenome Raw sequence reads
The transportation of atmospheric bacteria is increasingly recognized as an important factor affecting bacterial diversity in natural environments as well as impacting human health. However, few studies have investigated the airborne bacterial biodiversity in extreme remote, arid, and cold environments, such as desert and alpine areas, which may represent background bacteria transported by air masses. In this study, atmospheric aerosol samples were collected from southern slope of the Himalayas, Southern Tibetan Plateau and Mongolian Plateau, to analyze the diversity of airborne bacteria and their relation to environmental factors. The results show that the bacterial compositions in all samples were predominantly composed of Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes. Furthermore, the community structures of airborne bacteria exhibited significant differences among collected samples, mainly dependant on meteorological parameters (P values < 0.01). In particular, the aerosol samples over the Tibetan Plateau showed the lowest diversity among the three regions. This suggested that variability of airborne bacterial communities is determined by meteorological parameters and long-range transportation. Our study provides new information on airborne bacterial compositions in extreme environments and their spatial variability over large-scale areas.