Taxonomic Composition of Winter Microbial Communities in Salt Lakes of the Barguzin Basin (Russia) Using Shotgun Metagenomic Sequencing

The study presents the results of a comparative analysis of the taxonomic composition of microbial communities in two salt lakes sampled during the winter using shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Actinomycetota (55,18 %), Pseudomonadota (19,28 %), and Balneolaeota (7,19 %) dominate in Lake Gudzhirganskoye. The dominant phyla in Lake Nukhe-Nur are Pseudomonadota (78,04 %) and Bacillota (13,89 %), indicating potentially higher heterotrophic activity. The identified differences, such as the high proportion of Balneolaeota in Lake Gudzhirganskoye and the dominance of Cyanobacteriota (3,02 %) only in Lake Nukhe-Nur, show the high specificity of the studied microbial communities in salt ecosystems.