Prokaryotic communities from a lava tube cave in La Palma Island (Spain) are involved in the biogeochemical cycle of major elements

Abstract

Lava caves differ from karstic caves in their genesis and mineral composition. Subsurface microbiology of lava tube caves in Canary Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, is largely unknown. We have focused the investigation in a representative lava tube cave, Fuente de la Canaria Cave, in La Palma Island, Spain, which presents different types of speleothems and colored microbial mats. Four samples collected in this cave were studied using DNA next-generation sequencing and field emission scanning electron microscopy for bacterial identification, functional profiling, and morphological characterization. The data showed an almost exclusive dominance of Bacteria over Archaea. The distribution in phyla revealed a majority abundance of Proteobacteria (37–89%), followed by Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Candidatus Rokubacteria. These four phyla comprised a total relative abundance of 72–96%. The main ecological functions in the microbial communities were chemoheterotrophy, methanotrophy, sulfur and nitrogen metabolisms, and CO2 fixation; although other ecological functions were outlined. Genome annotations of the especially representative taxon Ga0077536 (about 71% of abundance in moonmilk) predicted the presence of genes involved in CO2 fixation, formaldehyde consumption, sulfur and nitrogen metabolisms, and microbially-induced carbonate precipitation. The detection of several putative lineages associated with C, N, S, Fe and Mn indicates that Fuente de la Canaria Cave basalts are colonized by metabolically diverse prokaryotic communities involved in the biogeochemical cycling of major elements.

Role of Subterranean Microbiota in the Carbon Cycle and Greenhouse Gas Dynamics

“…Our results were consistent with previous moonmilk microbiome studies where Actinobacteria represented a high percentage of the moonmilk bacterial community (Maciejewska et al, 2018;Park et al, 2020). To the best of our knowledge, there is no study associating Crossiella relative abundance with moonmilk formation, except in the study on a volcanic cave where Crossiella relative abundance was 2.5% (Gonzalez-Pimentel et al, 2021). However, a few authors reported the finding of Crossiella not only in carbonate environments such as weathered rock caves (Ma et al, 2021), but also in deteriorated stone monuments (Li et al, 2018).…”

“…Moonmilk deposits are the best known and widespread example of microbially-induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) in different subterranean environments, from karstic (Cañaveras et al, 2006) and volcanic caves (Gonzalez-Pimentel et al, 2021) to granite tunnels (Miller et al, 2018). In fact, a growing research interest has recently been raised in the scientific community on understanding microbial communities and mechanisms involved in mineral precipitation processes (Maciejewska et al, 2017).…”

Streptomyces benahoarensis sp. nov. Isolated From a Lava Tube of La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain

“…Strains MZ03-37 T and MZ03-48 were isolated on nutrient agar (NA, BD, Sparks, USA) with 3% of magnesium sulfate and 2% of glycerol at 28°C for 21 days, from two different locations in the lava tube Fuente de la Canaria (latitude: 28°35'25.2“N and longitude: 17°48′01.3”W) located in La Palma Island, Canary Islands (Spain) (Gonzalez-Pimentel et al, 2021 ). MZ03-37 T was isolated from a light-brown mucolite and MZ03-48 from a dark-brown microbial mat, both sampling sites separated by a distance of 15 m. Morphological, chemotaxonomical, and physiological studies were carried out from cultures on yeast extract-malt extract agar (International Streptomyces Project medium no 2, ISP2) at 28°C, except when otherwise indicated.…”

“…The company MicrobesNG (Birmingham, UK) was responsible for sequencing genomic DNA in order to assemble the draft genome for both bacteria. Sequencing of genomic DNA of strains MZ03-37 T , MZ03-48, and Streptomyces palmae CMU-AB204 T and subsequent assembly was described by Gonzalez-Pimentel et al ( 2021 ). The genome of Streptomyces ramulosus NRRL B-2714 T was assembled following the same procedure using the raw data (Ju et al, 2015 ).…”

Morpho-Mineralogical and Bio-Geochemical Description of Cave Manganese Stromatolite-Like Patinas (Grotta del Cervo, Central Italy) and Hints on Their Paleohydrological-Driven Genesis

“…An interesting aspect emerging from our microbiological investigation is the scarce contribution of Archaea to microbial communities. Most of the microbial communities of caves, located in different geographical regions and environmental conditions, showed an almost exclusive dominance of Bacteria and a negligible percentage of Archaea (Pasic et al, 2010;Itcus et al, 2018;Wiseschart et al, 2019;Jurado et al, 2020;Gonzalez-Pimentel et al, 2021). Only in a few cases, Archaea were linked to MnFe deposits, such as in Lechuguilla Cave (Northup et al, 2003).…”