Taxonomic composition and seasonal dynamics of the air microbiome in West Siberia

Here, we describe taxonomical composition, as well as seasonal and diel dynamics of airborne microbial communities in West Siberia. A total of 78 airborne biomass samples from 39 time intervals were analysed, within a temperature range of 48 °C (26 °C to - 22 °C). We observed a 5-170-fold decrease in DNA yield extracted from the airborne biomass in winter compared to summer, nevertheless, yielding sufficient material for metagenomic analysis. The airborne microbial communities included Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota fungi as major components, as well as some Streptophyta plants. In summer, bacterial and fungal plant pathogens, and wood-rotting saprophytes were predominant. In winter, Ascomycota moulds and cold-related or stress environment bacterial species were enriched, while the fraction of wood-rotting and mushroom-forming Basidiomycota fungi was largely reduced. As recently reported for the tropical climate, the airborne microbial communities performed a diel cycle in summer, however, in winter diel dynamics were not observed. Ministry of Education (MOE) Published version This study was supported by Academic Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 3, Singapore Ministry of Education (grant number: MOE2013-T3-1-013). V.N.K and V.A.S were supported by the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (Project #18-29-13045). We thank Dr. Sharon Longford, Senior Assistant Director, Science Communications, Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE), Nanyang Technological University for critical reading of this manuscript.