First assessment of acidophilic microorganisms from geothermal Copahue–Caviahue system

Chiacchiarini, P.; Lavalle, L.; Giaveno, Alejandra; Donati, Edgardo R.

doi:10.1016/j.hydromet.2010.02.020

Cited by 33 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Our research group has been working on the assessment of the biodiversity of Río Agrio for the last 20 years. At the beginning, we relied only on culture depending techniques which allowed the identification of several acidophilic iron and/or sulfur oxidizing species [32,33]. These results encourage us to perform more comprehensive assessments of prokaryotic biodiversity, such as cloning and sequencing of 16S rRNA genes of bacteria and archaea [10].…”

Section: Characteristics Of the Prokaryotic Community Of The Copahue mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Deeper Look into the Biodiversity of the Extremely Acidic Copahue volcano-Río Agrio System in Neuquén, Argentina

et al. 2019

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The Copahue volcano-Río Agrio system, on Patagonia Argentina, comprises the naturally acidic river Río Agrio, that runs from a few meters down the Copahue volcano crater to more than 40 km maintaining low pH waters, and the acidic lagoon that sporadically forms on the crater of the volcano, which is studied for the first time in this work. We used next-generation sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene of the entire prokaryotic community to study the biodiversity of this poorly explored extreme environment. The correlation of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs)s presence with physicochemical variables showed that the system contains three distinct environments: the crater lagoon, the Upper Río Agrio, and the Salto del Agrio waterfall, a point located approximately 12 km down the origin of the river, after it emerges from the Caviahue lake. The prokaryotic community of the Copahue Volcano-Río Agrio system is mainly formed by acidic bacteria and archaea, such as Acidithiobacillus, Ferroplasma, and Leptospirillum, which have been isolated from similar environments around the world. These results support the idea of a ubiquitous acidic biodiversity; however, this highly interesting extreme environment also has apparently autochthonous species such as Sulfuriferula, Acidianus copahuensis, and strains of Acidibacillus and Alicyclobacillus.

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Section: Characteristics Of the Prokaryotic Community Of The Copahue mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Deeper Look into the Biodiversity of the Extremely Acidic Copahue volcano-Río Agrio System in Neuquén, Argentina

et al. 2019

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“…Caviahue-Copahue system is characterised by the presence of acidic hot springs that are a potential source of extremophilic microorganisms, many of them not yet discovered. This volcanic geothermal area has been studied in its geology, geochemistry, volcanism and thermalism over the past 20 years [5,9,11,21,22,35] and more recently its prokaryotic biodiversity has been assessed [3,4,34]. However, no new indigenous extremophilic species have been reported yet from this area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physiologic Versatility and Growth Flexibility as the Main Characteristics of a Novel Thermoacidophilic Acidianus Strain Isolated from Copahue Geothermal Area in Argentina

et al. 2012

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A novel thermoacidophilic archaeal strain has been isolated from three geothermal acidic hot springs in Copahue, Argentina. One of the most striking characteristic of ALE1 isolate is its metabolic versatility. It grows on sulphur, tetrathionate, iron (II) and sucrose under aerobic conditions, but it can also develop under anaerobic conditions using iron (III) or sulphur as electron acceptors and sulphur or hydrogen as electron donors autotrophically. A temperature of 75 °C and a pH between 2.5 and 3.0 are strain ALE1 optimal growth conditions, but it is able to oxidise iron (II) even at pH 1.0. Cells are irregular cocci surrounded by a regularly arrayed glycoprotein layer (S-layer). Phylogenetic analysis shows that strain ALE1 belongs to the family Sulfolobaceae in the class Thermoprotei, within the phylum Crenarchaeota. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity on NCBI database, ALE1 does not have closely related relatives, neither in culture nor uncultured, which is more surprising. Its closest related species are strains of Acidianus hospitalis (91 % of sequence similarity), Acidianus infernus (90 %), Acidianus ambivalens (90 %) and Acidianus manzanensis (90 %). Its DNA base composition of 34.5 % mol C + G is higher than that reported for other Acidianus species. Considering physiological and phylogenetic characteristics of strain ALE1, we considered it to represent a novel species of the genus Acidianus (candidatus "Acidianus copahuensis"). The aim of this study is to physiologically characterise this novel archaea in order to understand its role in iron and sulphur geochemical cycles in the Copahue geothermal area and to evaluate its potential applications in bioleaching and biooxidation.

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“…From the Crenarchaeota phylum, only one sequence from the CV sample was 98% similar to an uncultured clone. Archaea from Acidianus genus were found by culture-dependent techniques from VA2 [11], but it was not possible to retrieve them in our case. Figure 4 presents phylogenetic affiliation of 16S rRNA sequences belonging to the archaea domain found in Río Agrio.…”

Section: Sequence Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 73%

“…There are a few natural environments with hydrothermal activity where acidic rivers originate; that is why they are so interesting to be studied. Microorganisms that inhabit those ecological niches are acidophilic, mesophilic or thermophilic, almost exclusively involved in iron and sulphur cycles [11,19,24], and are not found in neutral pH water rivers as they are unable to survive [12]. The effort put on revealing and understanding their biodiversity and ecology obeys to some other reasons than natural biologist interest on knowing what forms of life develop everywhere on Earth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies have also been done on its microbiology, mainly focusing on characterisation and isolation of native acidophilic microorganisms [11,35] and their use in specific processes [21], but its whole prokaryotic biodiversity has never been studied and reported before. Revealing this particular natural environment prokaryotic biodiversity by non-culture techniques may improve detection and isolation of microorganisms involved in iron and sulphur cycles that can be useful in biomining and bioremediation processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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First Prokaryotic Biodiversity Assessment Using Molecular Techniques of an Acidic River in Neuquén, Argentina

et al. 2012

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Two acidic hot springs close to the crater of Copahue Volcano (Neuquén, Argentina) are the source of the Río Agrio. The river runs several kilometres before flowing into Caviahue Lake. Along the river, temperature, iron, other metal and proton concentrations decrease gradually with distance downstream. From the source to the lake and depending on the season, pH can rise from 1.0 (or even less) to about 4.0, while temperature values decrease from 70°C to 15°C. Water samples were taken from different stations on the river selected according to their physicochemical parameters. In order to assess prokaryotic biodiversity throughout the water column, different and complementary molecular biology techniques were used, mainly in situ hybridisation and 16S rRNA gene cloning and sequencing. All microorganisms found are typical of acidic environments. Sulphur-oxidizing bacteria like Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and Acidithiobacillus albertensis were detected in every station. Moderately thermophile iron- and sulphur-oxidizing bacteria like members of Alicyclobacillus and Sulfobacillus genera were also ubiquitous. Strict iron-oxidizing bacteria like Leptospirillum and Ferrimicrobium were present at the source of the river, but disappeared downstream where iron concentrations were much lower. Iron-oxidizing, mesophilic Ferroplasma spp. were the main archaea found. The data presented in this work represent the first molecular assessment of this rare natural acidic environment.

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First assessment of acidophilic microorganisms from geothermal Copahue–Caviahue system

Cited by 33 publications

References 31 publications

A Deeper Look into the Biodiversity of the Extremely Acidic Copahue volcano-Río Agrio System in Neuquén, Argentina

A Deeper Look into the Biodiversity of the Extremely Acidic Copahue volcano-Río Agrio System in Neuquén, Argentina

Physiologic Versatility and Growth Flexibility as the Main Characteristics of a Novel Thermoacidophilic Acidianus Strain Isolated from Copahue Geothermal Area in Argentina

First Prokaryotic Biodiversity Assessment Using Molecular Techniques of an Acidic River in Neuquén, Argentina

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