Biogeographical patterns of bacterial and archaeal communities from distant hypersaline environments

Mora-Ruiz, Merit del Rocío; Cifuentes, Ana; Font-Verdera, Francisca; Perez-Fernandez, Cesar; Farı́as, Marı́a Eugenia; González, Bernardo; Orfila, Alejandro; Rosselló‐Móra, Ramon

doi:10.1016/j.syapm.2017.10.006

Cited by 42 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…A high variability in the redox potential was detected among different samples and different seasons, either from the industrial and undisturbed areas, while water activity was less variable. Chemical analyses confirmed the high concentrations in SdU samples of MgCl 2 , LiCl and NaBr, all strong chaotropic agents, compared with other previously described solar salterns (Di Meglio et al ., ; Mora‐Ruiz et al ., ). A principal component analysis (PCA) considering all the environmental variables showed a separation between samples from the dry/cold and wet/warm seasons, indicating that seasonal conditions have a strong influence on the segregation of the samples (Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Prokaryotic and viral community structure in the singular chaotropic salt lake Salar de Uyuni

Ramos‐Barbero

Martínez

Almansa

et al. 2019

Environmental Microbiology

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Summary Salar de Uyuni (SdU) is the largest hypersaline salt flat and the highest lithium reservoir on Earth. In addition to extreme temperatures and high UV irradiance, SdU has high concentrations of chaotropic salts which can be important factors in controlling microbial diversity. Here, for the first time we characterize the viral diversity of this hypersaline environment during the two seasons, as well as the physicochemical characteristics and the prokaryotic communities of the analysed samples. Most of the selected samples showed a peculiar physicochemical composition and prokaryotic diversity, mostly different from each other even for samples from locations in close proximity or the same season. In contrast to most hypersaline systems Bacteria frequently outnumbered Archaea. Furthermore, an outstanding percentage of members of Salinibacter sp., likely a species different from the cosmopolitan Salinibacter ruber, was obtained in most of the samples. Viral communities displayed the morphologies normally found in hypersaline environments. Two seasonal samples were chosen for a detailed metagenomic analysis of the viral assemblage. Both viral communities shared common sequences but were dominated by sample‐specific viruses, mirroring the differences also observed in physicochemical and prokaryotic community composition. These metaviromes were distinct from those detected in other hypersaline systems analysed to date.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Prokaryotic and viral community structure in the singular chaotropic salt lake Salar de Uyuni

Ramos‐Barbero

Martínez

Almansa

et al. 2019

Environmental Microbiology

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“…The high relative abundance of Salinibacter sp. (56%) found in the natural brine (dominated by NaCl) have been widely described, since it is a typical bacterium reported in hypersaline environments (Antón et al, ; del Mora‐Ruiz et al, ; Maturrano et al, ). The principal families detected in the concentrated brines were Staphylococcaceae (99.9%) and Xanthomonadaceae‐unclassified (99.9%).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Halophile, or salt‐loving organisms are classified as slight, moderate or extreme, depending in the concentrations of salts required for growth (DasSarma & DasSarma, ). Generally, the main bacterial groups detected in saline environments belong to Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes (Oren et al, ; Ventosa et al, ), and Euryarchaeota and Nanohaloarchaeota in the Archaea (Mora‐Ruiz et al, ; Ochsenreiter et al, ). In the case of lithium brines, only Halobacteriaceae, a family within Euryarchaeota (Haferburg et al, ), have been reported.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Communities From the World's Largest Lithium Reserve, Salar de Atacama, Chile: Life at High LiCl Concentrations

et al. 2018

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Salar de Atacama is one of the largest global reservoirs of natural lithium brines (mean lithium concentration = 1,500 ppm), enabling Chile to be a leading producer of lithium products. This large salar (3,000 km 2 ), located in the Atacama Desert at 2,300 m above sea level, is dominated by microorganisms; however, little is known about the microbes present in the brines associated with this economically important mining process. Here we study lithium as a modulator of microbial richness and diversity in brines representing natural conditions (34.7% salinity) and conditions prior to lithium production with a concentrated brine (55.6% salinity). Brines only supported a single archaeal family (Halobacteriaceae): natural brines included the archaeal genera Halovenus, Natronomonas, Haloarcula, and Halobacterium. Concentrated brines included the archaeal genera Halovenus, Halobacterium, and Halococcus. The most abundant bacterial families in natural brine were Rhodothermaceae and Staphylococcaceae; Xanthomonadaceae dominated the bacterial community in the concentrated brine. A comparison of entire microbial community (Archaea and Bacteria) revealed that only seven operational taxonomic units were shared between samples, all of which were Archaea. Further, our results showed that Bacteria were phylogenetically more diverse and rich in the concentrated brine, while archaeal diversity was maximized in the natural brine. The concentrated lithium brines of the Salar de Atacama represent one of the most saline environments described to date (dominated by LiCl). We suggest that elevated concentrations of lithium could greatly modulate microbial diversity and give insights into the adaptive biology of microorganisms required to cope with extremely high concentrations of salts that extend beyond that of NaCl, a far more commonly studied salt.Plain Language Summary Lithium is a main component of many of the batteries that we rely on for our daily use. In the last years, nearly 40% of all lithium obtained globally was from a single fragile salt-lake ecosystem: Salar de Atacama in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. This salar has extremely saline waters called brines (dominated by NaCl, aka table salt), which are naturally highly concentrated in lithium and concentrated in evaporation ponds. In total, concentrated brines has a salinity of 55.6% (ocean salinity = 0.3%), representing one of the most saline environments described on Earth to date (dominated by lithium chloride). Our research has shown that concentrated brines support life and are dominated by hundreds of species of microorganisms. Due to saline stress these "extremophiles" have developed very special (and previously undescribed) strategies to survive in this lithium soup. These results have implications beyond Earth: they have marked implications for our understanding for the potential for life on Mars, where liquid water is known to occur as brine. Although lithium production has clear economic importance, our results show that we should consider how we will pre...

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“…Therefore, we selected this driest, brownish and most superficial and marginal sample for in-depth analysis of the prokaryotic and viral assemblages because (i) it covers a relatively large area of the lake every dry season, which highlights its relevance in the system; (ii) it showed the highest concentration of magnesium sulfate minerals at the lowest hydration stage, which can be considered a good terrestrial analogue for the sulfate-rich mineral regions on Mars (Vaniman et al, 2004;Chou and Seal Li, 2007), and finally; (iii) very few studies have been reported about the metagenome and viral communities of sulfate-rich salt settings. The chemical composition and the 16S rRNA based microbial characterization of the rest of the samples have been published elsewhere (Mora-Ruiz et al, 2018).…”

Section: Geochemical Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prokaryotic and viral community of the sulfate‐rich crust from Peñahueca ephemeral lake, an astrobiology analogue

Martín-Cuadrado

Senel

Martínez‐García

et al. 2019

Environmental Microbiology

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Summary Peñahueca is an athalassohaline hypersaline inland ephemeral lake originated under semiarid conditions in the central Iberian Peninsula (Spain). Its chemical composition makes it extreme for microbial life as well as a terrestrial analogue of other planetary environments. To investigate the persistence of microbial life associated with sulfate‐rich crusts, we applied cultivation‐independent methods (optical and electron microscopy, 16S rRNA gene profiling and metagenomics) to describe the prokaryotic community and its associated viruses. The diversity for Bacteria was very low and was vastly dominated by endospore formers related to Pontibacillus marinus of the Firmicutes phylum. The archaeal assemblage was more diverse and included taxa related to those normally found in hypersaline environments. Several ‘metagenome assembled genomes’ were recovered, corresponding to new species of Pontibacillus, several species from the Halobacteria and one new member of the Nanohaloarchaeota. The viral assemblage, although composed of the morphotypes typical of high salt systems, showed little similarity to previously isolated/reconstructed halophages. Several putative prophages of Pontibacillus and haloarchaeal hosts were identified. Remarkably, the Peñahueca sulfate‐rich metagenome contained CRISPR‐associated proteins and repetitions which were over 10‐fold higher than in most hypersaline systems analysed so far.

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Biogeographical patterns of bacterial and archaeal communities from distant hypersaline environments

Cited by 42 publications

References 81 publications

Prokaryotic and viral community structure in the singular chaotropic salt lake Salar de Uyuni

Prokaryotic and viral community structure in the singular chaotropic salt lake Salar de Uyuni

Microbial Communities From the World's Largest Lithium Reserve, Salar de Atacama, Chile: Life at High LiCl Concentrations

Prokaryotic and viral community of the sulfate‐rich crust from Peñahueca ephemeral lake, an astrobiology analogue

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