Life at the hyperarid margin: novel bacterial diversity in arid soils of the Atacama Desert, Chile

Neilson, Julia W.; Quade, Jay; Ortiz, Marianyoly; Nelson, William M.; Legatzki, Antje; Tian, Fei; LaComb, Michelle; Betancourt, Julio L.; Wing, Rod A.; Soderlund, Carol; Maier, Raina M.

doi:10.1007/s00792-012-0454-z

Cited by 186 publications

(130 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Shannon-Wiener and Simpson analysis revealed a low diversity within the clone library (2.06 and 0.25). Similar results have been reported in previous works in the Atacama Desert using V6 region in which ACE, Simpson and Shannon index were 278, 0.14 and 3.0 respectively [10].…”

Section: Biodiversity Of the Bacterial Clone Librarysupporting

confidence: 91%

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Phylogenetic Profiling and Diversity of Bacterial Communities in the Death Valley, an Extreme Habitat in the Atacama Desert

et al. 2015

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The Atacama Desert, one of the driest deserts in the world, represents a unique extreme environmental ecosystem to explore the bacterial diversity as it is considered to be at the dry limit for life. A 16S rRNA gene (spanning the hyper variable V3 region) library was constructed from an alkaline sample of unvegetated soil at the hyperarid margin in the Atacama Desert. A total of 244 clone sequences were used for MOTHUR analysis, which revealed 20 unique phylotypes or operational taxonomic units (OTUs). V3 region amplicons of the 16S rRNA were suitable for distinguishing the bacterial community to the genus and specie level. We found that all OTUs were affiliated with taxa representative of the Firmicutes phylum. The extremely high abundance of Firmicutes indicated that most bacteria in the soil were spore-forming survivors. In this study we detected a narrower diversity as compared to other ecological studies performed in other areas of the Atacama Desert. The reported genera were Oceanobacillus (representing the 69.5 % of the clones sequenced), Bacillus, Thalassobacillus and Virgibacillus. The present work shows physical and chemical parameters have a prominent impact on the microbial community structure. It constitutes an example of the communities adapted to live in extreme conditions caused by dryness and metal concentrations.

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Section: Biodiversity Of the Bacterial Clone Librarysupporting

confidence: 91%

“…However, microscopic observations and mathematical modeling estimates that 99 % of bacteria are non-culturable under standard laboratory conditions [8]. Different studies have been focused on the diversity of uncultured microorganisms in this inhospitable habitat [1,9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic Profiling and Diversity of Bacterial Communities in the Death Valley, an Extreme Habitat in the Atacama Desert

et al. 2015

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“…Many studies have focused on the low-elevation areas of the Atacama Desert (e.g. Arroyo et al 1988; Richter and Schmidt 2002; Drees et al 2006; Demergasso et al 2010; Neilson et al 2012). However, very little biological work has been done in the remote, high-elevation, unvegetated zone that exists above 5100 m.a.s.l..…”

Section: The Environmental and Biogeochemical Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

ANaganishiain high places: functioning populations or dormant cells from the atmosphere?

et al. 2017

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Here, we review the current state of knowledge concerning high-elevation members of the extremophilic Cryptococcus albidus clade (now classified as the genus Naganishia). These fungi dominate eukaryotic microbial communities across the highest elevation, soil-like material (tephra) on volcanoes such as Llullaillaco, Socompa, and Saírecabur in the Atacama region of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Recent studies indicate that Naganishia species are among the most resistant organisms to UV radiation, and a strain of N. friedmannii from Volcán Llullaillaco is the first organism that is known to grow during the extreme, diurnal freeze-thaw cycles that occur on a continuous basis at elevations above 6000 m.a.s.l. in the Atacama region. These and other extremophilic traits discussed in this review may serve a dual purpose of allowing Naganishia species to survive long-distance transport through the atmosphere and to survive the extreme conditions found at high elevations. Current evidence indicates that there are frequent dispersal events between high-elevation volcanoes of Atacama region and the Dry Valleys of Antarctica via “Rossby Wave” merging of the polar and sub-tropical jet streams. This dispersal hypothesis needs further verification, as does the hypothesis that Naganishia species are flexible “opportunitrophs” that can grow during rare periods of water (from melting snow) and nutrient availability (from Aeolian inputs) in one of the most extreme terrestrial habitats on Earth.

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“…Microbial communities in these habitats tend to have low diversity (2,4,5) and specialized physiologies (6), suggesting a potentially limited resistance and resilience to change (7). However, few experiments have been conducted in extreme environments to assess the susceptibility of these communities to disturbance.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Microbial Responses to Increased Moisture and Organic Resources along a Salinity Gradient in a Polar Desert

Horn

Okie

Buelow³

et al. 2014

Appl Environ Microbiol

174

102

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dMicrobial communities in extreme environments often have low diversity and specialized physiologies suggesting a limited resistance to change. The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) are a microbially dominated, extreme ecosystem currently undergoing climate change-induced disturbances, including the melting of massive buried ice, cutting through of permafrost by streams, and warming events. These processes are increasing moisture across the landscape, altering conditions for soil communities by mobilizing nutrients and salts and stimulating autotrophic carbon inputs to soils. The goal of this study was to determine the effects of resource addition (water/organic matter) on the composition and function of microbial communities in the MDV along a natural salinity gradient representing an additional gradient of stress in an already extreme environment. Soil respiration and the activity of carbon-acquiring extracellular enzymes increased significantly (P < 0.05) with the addition of resources at the low-and moderate-salinity sites but not the high-salinity site. The bacterial community composition was altered, with an increase in Proteobacteria and Firmicutes with water and organic matter additions at the low-and moderate-salinity sites and a near dominance of Firmicutes at the high-salinity site. Principal coordinate analyses of all samples using a phylogenetically informed distance matrix (UniFrac) demonstrated discrete clustering among sites (analysis of similarity [ANOSIM], P < 0.05 and R > 0.40) and among most treatments within sites. The results from this experimental work suggest that microbial communities in this environment will undergo rapid change in response to the altered resources resulting from climate change impacts occurring in this region.

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Life at the hyperarid margin: novel bacterial diversity in arid soils of the Atacama Desert, Chile

Cited by 186 publications

References 51 publications

Phylogenetic Profiling and Diversity of Bacterial Communities in the Death Valley, an Extreme Habitat in the Atacama Desert

Phylogenetic Profiling and Diversity of Bacterial Communities in the Death Valley, an Extreme Habitat in the Atacama Desert

ANaganishiain high places: functioning populations or dormant cells from the atmosphere?

Soil Microbial Responses to Increased Moisture and Organic Resources along a Salinity Gradient in a Polar Desert

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