Uncovering the Uncultivated Majority in Antarctic Soils: Toward a Synergistic Approach
Although Antarctica was once believed to be a sterile environment, it is now clear that the microbial communities inhabiting the Antarctic continent are surprisingly diverse. Until the beginning of the new millennium, little was known about the most abundant inhabitants of the continent: prokaryotes...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:5f2f9a01916c40e19345d18d3989b713 2023-05-15T13:46:38+02:00 Uncovering the Uncultivated Majority in Antarctic Soils: Toward a Synergistic Approach Sam Lambrechts Anne Willems Guillaume Tahon 2019-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 https://doaj.org/article/5f2f9a01916c40e19345d18d3989b713 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242/full https://doaj.org/toc/1664-302X 1664-302X doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 https://doaj.org/article/5f2f9a01916c40e19345d18d3989b713 Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol 10 (2019) Antarctica uncultivated majority cultivation terrestrial cultivation-independent metagenomics Microbiology QR1-502 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 2022-12-31T12:47:53Z Although Antarctica was once believed to be a sterile environment, it is now clear that the microbial communities inhabiting the Antarctic continent are surprisingly diverse. Until the beginning of the new millennium, little was known about the most abundant inhabitants of the continent: prokaryotes. From then on, however, the rising use of deep sequencing techniques has led to a better understanding of the Antarctic prokaryote diversity and provided insights in the composition of prokaryotic communities in different Antarctic environments. Although these cultivation-independent approaches can produce millions of sequences, linking these data to organisms is hindered by several problems. The largest difficulty is the lack of biological information on large parts of the microbial tree of life, arising from the fact that most microbial diversity on Earth has never been characterized in laboratory cultures. These unknown prokaryotes, also known as microbial dark matter, have been dominantly detected in all major environments on our planet. Laboratory cultures provide access to the complete genome and the means to experimentally verify genomic predictions and metabolic functions and to provide evidence of horizontal gene transfer. Without such well-documented reference data, microbial dark matter will remain a major blind spot in deep sequencing studies. Here, we review our current understanding of prokaryotic communities in Antarctic ice-free soils based on cultivation-dependent and cultivation-independent approaches. We discuss advantages and disadvantages of both approaches and how these strategies may be combined synergistically to strengthen each other and allow a more profound understanding of prokaryotic life on the frozen continent. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic The Antarctic Frontiers in Microbiology 10 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Antarctica uncultivated majority cultivation terrestrial cultivation-independent metagenomics Microbiology QR1-502 |
spellingShingle |
Antarctica uncultivated majority cultivation terrestrial cultivation-independent metagenomics Microbiology QR1-502 Sam Lambrechts Anne Willems Guillaume Tahon Uncovering the Uncultivated Majority in Antarctic Soils: Toward a Synergistic Approach |
topic_facet |
Antarctica uncultivated majority cultivation terrestrial cultivation-independent metagenomics Microbiology QR1-502 |
description |
Although Antarctica was once believed to be a sterile environment, it is now clear that the microbial communities inhabiting the Antarctic continent are surprisingly diverse. Until the beginning of the new millennium, little was known about the most abundant inhabitants of the continent: prokaryotes. From then on, however, the rising use of deep sequencing techniques has led to a better understanding of the Antarctic prokaryote diversity and provided insights in the composition of prokaryotic communities in different Antarctic environments. Although these cultivation-independent approaches can produce millions of sequences, linking these data to organisms is hindered by several problems. The largest difficulty is the lack of biological information on large parts of the microbial tree of life, arising from the fact that most microbial diversity on Earth has never been characterized in laboratory cultures. These unknown prokaryotes, also known as microbial dark matter, have been dominantly detected in all major environments on our planet. Laboratory cultures provide access to the complete genome and the means to experimentally verify genomic predictions and metabolic functions and to provide evidence of horizontal gene transfer. Without such well-documented reference data, microbial dark matter will remain a major blind spot in deep sequencing studies. Here, we review our current understanding of prokaryotic communities in Antarctic ice-free soils based on cultivation-dependent and cultivation-independent approaches. We discuss advantages and disadvantages of both approaches and how these strategies may be combined synergistically to strengthen each other and allow a more profound understanding of prokaryotic life on the frozen continent. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sam Lambrechts Anne Willems Guillaume Tahon |
author_facet |
Sam Lambrechts Anne Willems Guillaume Tahon |
author_sort |
Sam Lambrechts |
title |
Uncovering the Uncultivated Majority in Antarctic Soils: Toward a Synergistic Approach |
title_short |
Uncovering the Uncultivated Majority in Antarctic Soils: Toward a Synergistic Approach |
title_full |
Uncovering the Uncultivated Majority in Antarctic Soils: Toward a Synergistic Approach |
title_fullStr |
Uncovering the Uncultivated Majority in Antarctic Soils: Toward a Synergistic Approach |
title_full_unstemmed |
Uncovering the Uncultivated Majority in Antarctic Soils: Toward a Synergistic Approach |
title_sort |
uncovering the uncultivated majority in antarctic soils: toward a synergistic approach |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 https://doaj.org/article/5f2f9a01916c40e19345d18d3989b713 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
op_source |
Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol 10 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242/full https://doaj.org/toc/1664-302X 1664-302X doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 https://doaj.org/article/5f2f9a01916c40e19345d18d3989b713 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Microbiology |
container_volume |
10 |
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1766244791035625472 |