Lineage-specific metabolic transcription across environmental gradients in geothermal microbial communities.

Abstract

Understanding how environmental heterogeneity shapes microbial metabolism remains a central challenge. While metagenomics has revealed extensive metabolic potential, how these functions are transcriptionally represented across environmental gradients and microbial lineages remains unclear. Here, we integrated genome-resolved metagenomics and metatranscriptomics with co-expression network analysis to examine metabolic transcription across geothermal environments. Across Tengchong hot springs, metabolic transcription varies with pH, temperature, and organic matter. Acidic, organic-rich springs show prominent heterotrophic and sulfur-metabolism-related transcription, with Mesoaciditogales primarily associated with coenzyme and purine biosynthesis and Thermoplasmatales with sulfur reduction and central carbon metabolism. In contrast, non-acidic thermal springs show carbon fixation transcripts from Aquificales and Cyanobacteriales and sulfur oxidation transcripts from Aquificales and Deinococcales. Under more extreme conditions, carbon-fixation pathways become less diverse and increasingly biased toward energetically efficient strategies, while nitrogen-cycling transcription remains restricted. These findings reveal how microbial functional programs and their lineage associations reflect environmental heterogeneity across geothermal habitats.

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