Metagenomes in the Borderline Ecosystems of the Antarctic Cryptoendolithic Communities

• Published in: Microbiology Resource Announcements
• Main Authors: Coleine, Claudia, Albanese, Davide, Onofri, Silvano, Tringe, Susannah G., Pennacchio, Christa, Donati, Claudio, Stajich, Jason E., Selbmann, Laura
• Other Authors: Cuomo, Christina A., Italian National Program for Antarctic Research, CIFAR, HHS | National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Society for Microbiology 2020
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mra.01599-19; https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/MRA.01599-19

Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities are microbial ecosystems dwelling inside rocks of the Antarctic desert. We present the first 18 shotgun metagenomes from these communities to further characterize their composition, biodiversity, functionality, and adaptation. Future studies will integrate taxonomic and functional annotations to examine the pathways necessary for life to evolve in the extremes.