Distribution of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers in Tibetan hot springs

Isoprenoidal glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (iGDGTs) from the Gulu hot springs (23–83.6 °C, pH > 7) and Yangbajing hot springs (80–128 °C, pH > 7) were analyzed in order to investigate the distribution of archaeal lipids among different hot springs in Tibet. A soil sample from Gulu was incubated at different temperatures and analyzed for changes in iGDGTs to help evaluate whether surrounding soil may contribute to the iGDGTs in hot springs. The sources of bacterial GDGTs (bGDGTs) in these hot springs were also investigated. The results revealed different profiles of iGDGTs between Gulu and Yangbajing hot springs. Core iGDGTs and polar iGDGTs also presented different patterns in each hot spring. The PCA analysis showed that the structure of polar iGDGTs can be explained by three factors and suggested multiple sources of these compounds. Bivariate correlation analysis showed significant positive correlations between polar and core bGDGTs, suggesting the in situ production of bGDGTs in the hot springs. Furthermore, in the soil incubation experiment, temperature had the most significant influence on concentration of bGDGTs rather than iGDGTs, and polar bGDGTs had greater variability than core bGDGTs with changing temperature. Our results indicated that soil input had little influence on the composition of GDGTs in Tibetan hot springs. On the other hand, ring index and TEX86 values were both positively correlated with incubation temperature, suggesting that the structure of archaeal lipids changed in response to varying temperature during incubation.

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► Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are determined from Tibetan hot springs and soil.
► Archaeal and bacterial GDGTs are produced in situ in the hot spring.
► Soil incubation experiments show a positive correlation between ring index or TEX86 and incubation temperature.