Rock Traits Drive Complex Microbial Communities at the Edge of Life

• Published in: Astrobiology
• Main Authors: Coleine, Claudia, Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel, Zerboni, Andrea, Turchetti, Benedetta, Buzzini, Pietro, Franceschi, Pietro, Selbmann, Laura
• Other Authors: Italian Antarctic National Museum, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación (España), European Commission, Junta de Andalucía
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Mary Ann Liebert 2023
• Subjects: Antarctica; Extremophiles; Biogeochemistry; Habitability; Astrobiology; Terrestrial analog; Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/296557; https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2022.0062

12 páginas.- 5 figuras.- 46 referencias.- Supplementary Materials http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2022.0062 Antarctic deserts are among the driest and coldest ecosystems of the planet; there, some microbes survive under these extreme conditions inside porous rocks, forming the so-called endolithic communities. Yet the contribution of distinct rock traits to support complex microbial assemblies remains poorly determined. Here, we combined an extensive Antarctic rock survey with rock microbiome sequencing and ecological networks and found that contrasting combinations of microclimatic and rock traits such as thermal inertia, porosity, iron concentration, and quartz cement can help explain the multiple complex microbial assemblies found in Antarctic rocks. Our work highlights the pivotal role of rocky substrate heterogeneity in sustaining contrasting groups of microorganisms, which is essential to understand life at the edge on Earth and for the search for life on other rocky planets such as Mars. CC and LS wish to thank the Italian National Program for Antarctic Research (PNRA) for funding sampling campaigns and research activities in Italy in the frame of PNRA projects. The Italian Antarctic National Museum (MNA) is kindly acknowledged for financial support to the Mycological Section of the MNA and for providing rock samples used in this study stored in the Culture Collection of Antarctic fungi (MNA-CCFEE), University of Tuscia, Italy. LS acknowledges funding from the PNRA. MD-B is supported by a project from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2020- 115813RA-I00), and a project of the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) and the Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades of the Junta de Andalucía (FEDER Andalucía 2014-2020 Objetivo temático ‘01 – Refuerzo de la investigación, el desarrollo tecnológico y la innovación’) associated with the research project P20_00879 (ANDABIOMA). This paper was previously submitted to BioXRiv as a preprint. The preprint ...