Micro-eukaryotic Diversity in Hypolithons from Miers Valley, Antarctica

Overview

Journal Biology (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Biology

Date 2014 May 17

PMID 24832664

Citations 5

Authors

Jarishma K Gokul

Angel Valverde

Marla Tuffin

Stephen Craig Cary

Don A Cowan

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The discovery of extensive and complex hypolithic communities in both cold and hot deserts has raised many questions regarding their ecology, biodiversity and relevance in terms of regional productivity. However, most hypolithic research has focused on the bacterial elements of the community. This study represents the first investigation of micro-eukaryotic communities in all three hypolith types. Here we show that Antarctic hypoliths support extensive populations of novel uncharacterized bryophyta, fungi and protists and suggest that well known producer-decomposer-predator interactions may create the necessary conditions for hypolithic productivity in Antarctic deserts.

Citing Articles

The Vestfold Hills are alive: characterising microbial and environmental dynamics in Old Wallow, eastern Antarctica.

Chelliah D, Ray A, Zhang E, Terauds A, Ferrari B Front Microbiol. 2024; 15:1443491.

PMID: 39376700 PMC: 11457671. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1443491.

Novel sp. as an Etiology of Cutaneous Theileriosis among the Vulnerable Arabian Oryx.

Boughattas S, Salih M, Dogliero A, Eltai N Pathogens. 2024; 13(6).

PMID: 38921783 PMC: 11207031. DOI: 10.3390/pathogens13060485.

Differences in structure of northern Australian hypolithic communities according to location, rock type, and gross morphology.

Guenther S, Gibb K, Rose A, Kaestli M, Christian K AIMS Microbiol. 2019; 4(3):469-481.

PMID: 31294228 PMC: 6604943. DOI: 10.3934/microbiol.2018.3.469.

Comparative Metagenomic Analysis Reveals Mechanisms for Stress Response in Hypoliths from Extreme Hyperarid Deserts.

Thi Le P, Makhalanyane T, Guerrero L, Vikram S, Van de Peer Y, Cowan D Genome Biol Evol. 2016; 8(9):2737-47.

PMID: 27503299 PMC: 5630931. DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evw189.

Protection of Antarctic microbial communities - 'out of sight, out of mind'.

Hughes K, Cowan D, Wilmotte A Front Microbiol. 2015; 6:151.

PMID: 25762992 PMC: 4340226. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2015.00151.

References

Dorigo U, Berard A, Humbert J . Comparison of eukaryotic phytobenthic community composition in a polluted river by partial 18S rRNA gene cloning and sequencing. Microb Ecol. 2002; 44(4):372-80. DOI: 10.1007/s00248-002-2024-x. View

Cowan D, Sohm J, Makhalanyane T, Capone D, Green T, Cary S . Hypolithic communities: important nitrogen sources in Antarctic desert soils. Environ Microbiol Rep. 2013; 3(5):581-6. DOI: 10.1111/j.1758-2229.2011.00266.x. View

Cockell C, Stokes M . Ecology: widespread colonization by polar hypoliths. Nature. 2004; 431(7007):414. DOI: 10.1038/431414a. View

Chan Y, Lacap D, Lau M, Ha K, Warren-Rhodes K, Cockell C . Hypolithic microbial communities: between a rock and a hard place. Environ Microbiol. 2012; 14(9):2272-82. DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2012.02821.x. View

Pointing S, Chan Y, Lacap D, Lau M, Jurgens J, Farrell R . Highly specialized microbial diversity in hyper-arid polar desert. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009; 106(47):19964-9. PMC: 2765924. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0908274106. View

Gardes M, Bruns T . ITS primers with enhanced specificity for basidiomycetes--application to the identification of mycorrhizae and rusts. Mol Ecol. 1993; 2(2):113-8. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294x.1993.tb00005.x. View

Pointing S, Belnap J . Microbial colonization and controls in dryland systems. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2012; 10(8):551-62. DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro2831. View

Yau S, Lauro F, DeMaere M, Brown M, Thomas T, Raftery M . Virophage control of antarctic algal host-virus dynamics. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011; 108(15):6163-8. PMC: 3076838. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1018221108. View

Diez B, Pedros-Alio C, Marsh T, Massana R . Application of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) to study the diversity of marine picoeukaryotic assemblages and comparison of DGGE with other molecular techniques. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2001; 67(7):2942-51. PMC: 92965. DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.7.2942-2951.2001. View

10.

Cowan D . Cryptic microbial communities in Antarctic deserts. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009; 106(47):19749-50. PMC: 2785236. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0911628106. View

11.

Huang Y, Niu B, Gao Y, Fu L, Li W . CD-HIT Suite: a web server for clustering and comparing biological sequences. Bioinformatics. 2010; 26(5):680-2. PMC: 2828112. DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btq003. View

12.

Potvin M, Lovejoy C . PCR-based diversity estimates of artificial and environmental 18S rRNA gene libraries. J Eukaryot Microbiol. 2011; 56(2):174-81. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2008.00386.x. View

13.

Cary S, McDonald I, Barrett J, Cowan D . On the rocks: the microbiology of Antarctic Dry Valley soils. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2010; 8(2):129-38. DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro2281. View

14.

Campanaro S, Williams T, Burg D, De Francisci D, Treu L, Lauro F . Temperature-dependent global gene expression in the Antarctic archaeon Methanococcoides burtonii. Environ Microbiol. 2010; 13(8):2018-38. DOI: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2010.02367.x. View

15.

Gardner H, Kerry K, Riddle M, Brouwer S, Gleeson L . Poultry virus infection in Antarctic penguins. Nature. 1997; 387(6630):245. DOI: 10.1038/387245a0. View

16.

Huber T, Faulkner G, Hugenholtz P . Bellerophon: a program to detect chimeric sequences in multiple sequence alignments. Bioinformatics. 2004; 20(14):2317-9. DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bth226. View