Geomicrobiological Heterogeneity of Lithic Habitats in the Extreme Environment of Antarctic Nunataks: A Potential Early Mars Analog
Nunataks are permanent ice-free rocky peaks that project above ice caps in polar regions, thus being exposed to extreme climatic conditions throughout the year. They undergo extremely low temperatures and scarcity of liquid water in winter, while receiving high incident and reflected (albedo) UVA-B...
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2021
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.670982 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.670982/full |
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crfrontiers:10.3389/fmicb.2021.670982 2024-02-11T09:58:21+01:00 Geomicrobiological Heterogeneity of Lithic Habitats in the Extreme Environment of Antarctic Nunataks: A Potential Early Mars Analog Fernández-Martínez, Miguel Ángel García-Villadangos, Miriam Moreno-Paz, Mercedes Gangloff, Valentin Carrizo, Daniel Blanco, Yolanda González, Sergi Sánchez-García, Laura Prieto-Ballesteros, Olga Altshuler, Ianina Whyte, Lyle G. Parro, Victor Fairén, Alberto G. 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.670982 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.670982/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Microbiology volume 12 ISSN 1664-302X Microbiology (medical) Microbiology journal-article 2021 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.670982 2024-01-26T10:06:08Z Nunataks are permanent ice-free rocky peaks that project above ice caps in polar regions, thus being exposed to extreme climatic conditions throughout the year. They undergo extremely low temperatures and scarcity of liquid water in winter, while receiving high incident and reflected (albedo) UVA-B radiation in summer. Here, we investigate the geomicrobiology of the permanently exposed lithic substrates of nunataks from Livingston Island (South Shetlands, Antarctic Peninsula), with focus on prokaryotic community structure and their main metabolic traits. Contrarily to first hypothesis, an extensive sampling based on different gradients and multianalytical approaches demonstrated significant differences for most geomicrobiological parameters between the bedrock, soil, and loose rock substrates, which overlapped any other regional variation. Brevibacillus genus dominated on bedrock and soil substrates, while loose rocks contained a diverse microbial community, including Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and abundant Cyanobacteria inhabiting the milder and diverse microhabitats within. Archaea, a domain never described before in similar Antarctic environments, were also consistently found in the three substrates, but being more abundant and potentially more active in soils. Stable isotopic ratios of total carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N), soluble anions concentrations, and the detection of proteins involved in key metabolisms via the Life Detector Chip (LDChip), suggest that microbial primary production has a pivotal role in nutrient cycling at these exposed areas with limited deposition of nutrients. Detection of stress-resistance proteins, such as molecular chaperons, suggests microbial molecular adaptation mechanisms to cope with these harsh conditions. Since early Mars may have encompassed analogous environmental conditions as the ones found in these Antarctic nunataks, our study also contributes to the understanding of the metabolic features and biomarker profiles of a potential Martian microbiota, as ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Livingston Island Frontiers (Publisher) Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Livingston Island ENVELOPE(-60.500,-60.500,-62.600,-62.600) Frontiers in Microbiology 12 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Frontiers (Publisher) |
op_collection_id |
crfrontiers |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Microbiology (medical) Microbiology |
spellingShingle |
Microbiology (medical) Microbiology Fernández-Martínez, Miguel Ángel García-Villadangos, Miriam Moreno-Paz, Mercedes Gangloff, Valentin Carrizo, Daniel Blanco, Yolanda González, Sergi Sánchez-García, Laura Prieto-Ballesteros, Olga Altshuler, Ianina Whyte, Lyle G. Parro, Victor Fairén, Alberto G. Geomicrobiological Heterogeneity of Lithic Habitats in the Extreme Environment of Antarctic Nunataks: A Potential Early Mars Analog |
topic_facet |
Microbiology (medical) Microbiology |
description |
Nunataks are permanent ice-free rocky peaks that project above ice caps in polar regions, thus being exposed to extreme climatic conditions throughout the year. They undergo extremely low temperatures and scarcity of liquid water in winter, while receiving high incident and reflected (albedo) UVA-B radiation in summer. Here, we investigate the geomicrobiology of the permanently exposed lithic substrates of nunataks from Livingston Island (South Shetlands, Antarctic Peninsula), with focus on prokaryotic community structure and their main metabolic traits. Contrarily to first hypothesis, an extensive sampling based on different gradients and multianalytical approaches demonstrated significant differences for most geomicrobiological parameters between the bedrock, soil, and loose rock substrates, which overlapped any other regional variation. Brevibacillus genus dominated on bedrock and soil substrates, while loose rocks contained a diverse microbial community, including Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and abundant Cyanobacteria inhabiting the milder and diverse microhabitats within. Archaea, a domain never described before in similar Antarctic environments, were also consistently found in the three substrates, but being more abundant and potentially more active in soils. Stable isotopic ratios of total carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N), soluble anions concentrations, and the detection of proteins involved in key metabolisms via the Life Detector Chip (LDChip), suggest that microbial primary production has a pivotal role in nutrient cycling at these exposed areas with limited deposition of nutrients. Detection of stress-resistance proteins, such as molecular chaperons, suggests microbial molecular adaptation mechanisms to cope with these harsh conditions. Since early Mars may have encompassed analogous environmental conditions as the ones found in these Antarctic nunataks, our study also contributes to the understanding of the metabolic features and biomarker profiles of a potential Martian microbiota, as ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fernández-Martínez, Miguel Ángel García-Villadangos, Miriam Moreno-Paz, Mercedes Gangloff, Valentin Carrizo, Daniel Blanco, Yolanda González, Sergi Sánchez-García, Laura Prieto-Ballesteros, Olga Altshuler, Ianina Whyte, Lyle G. Parro, Victor Fairén, Alberto G. |
author_facet |
Fernández-Martínez, Miguel Ángel García-Villadangos, Miriam Moreno-Paz, Mercedes Gangloff, Valentin Carrizo, Daniel Blanco, Yolanda González, Sergi Sánchez-García, Laura Prieto-Ballesteros, Olga Altshuler, Ianina Whyte, Lyle G. Parro, Victor Fairén, Alberto G. |
author_sort |
Fernández-Martínez, Miguel Ángel |
title |
Geomicrobiological Heterogeneity of Lithic Habitats in the Extreme Environment of Antarctic Nunataks: A Potential Early Mars Analog |
title_short |
Geomicrobiological Heterogeneity of Lithic Habitats in the Extreme Environment of Antarctic Nunataks: A Potential Early Mars Analog |
title_full |
Geomicrobiological Heterogeneity of Lithic Habitats in the Extreme Environment of Antarctic Nunataks: A Potential Early Mars Analog |
title_fullStr |
Geomicrobiological Heterogeneity of Lithic Habitats in the Extreme Environment of Antarctic Nunataks: A Potential Early Mars Analog |
title_full_unstemmed |
Geomicrobiological Heterogeneity of Lithic Habitats in the Extreme Environment of Antarctic Nunataks: A Potential Early Mars Analog |
title_sort |
geomicrobiological heterogeneity of lithic habitats in the extreme environment of antarctic nunataks: a potential early mars analog |
publisher |
Frontiers Media SA |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.670982 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.670982/full |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-60.500,-60.500,-62.600,-62.600) |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Livingston Island |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Livingston Island |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Livingston Island |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Livingston Island |
op_source |
Frontiers in Microbiology volume 12 ISSN 1664-302X |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.670982 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Microbiology |
container_volume |
12 |
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1790593984915046400 |