Seasonality Is the Main Determinant of Microbial Diversity Associated to Snow/Ice around Concordia Station on the Antarctic Polar Plateau
The French–Italian Concordia Research Station, situated on the Antarctic Polar Plateau at an elevation of 3233 m above sea level, offers a unique opportunity to study the presence and variation of microbes introduced by abiotic or biotic vectors and, consequently, appraise the amplitude of human imp...
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2023
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12091193 https://doaj.org/article/c72bfe82346a4cd7afd1c975acf15ee0 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c72bfe82346a4cd7afd1c975acf15ee0 2023-10-29T02:31:19+01:00 Seasonality Is the Main Determinant of Microbial Diversity Associated to Snow/Ice around Concordia Station on the Antarctic Polar Plateau Gerardo A. Stoppiello Claudia Coleine Ralf Moeller Caterina Ripa Daniela Billi Laura Selbmann 2023-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12091193 https://doaj.org/article/c72bfe82346a4cd7afd1c975acf15ee0 EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/12/9/1193 https://doaj.org/toc/2079-7737 doi:10.3390/biology12091193 2079-7737 https://doaj.org/article/c72bfe82346a4cd7afd1c975acf15ee0 Biology, Vol 12, Iss 1193, p 1193 (2023) Antarctic Polar Plateau extremophiles life detection fungi bacteria amplicon sequencing Biology (General) QH301-705.5 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12091193 2023-10-01T00:38:58Z The French–Italian Concordia Research Station, situated on the Antarctic Polar Plateau at an elevation of 3233 m above sea level, offers a unique opportunity to study the presence and variation of microbes introduced by abiotic or biotic vectors and, consequently, appraise the amplitude of human impact in such a pristine environment. This research built upon a previous work, which explored microbial diversity in the surface snow surrounding the Concordia Research Station. While that study successfully characterized the bacterial assemblage, detecting fungal diversity was hampered by the low DNA content. To address this knowledge gap, in the present study, we optimized the sampling by increasing ice/snow collected to leverage the final DNA yield. The V4 variable region of the 16S rDNA and Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS1) rDNA was used to evaluate bacterial and fungal diversity. From the sequencing, we obtained 3,352,661 and 4,433,595 reads clustered in 930 and 3182 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) for fungi and bacteria, respectively. Amplicon sequencing revealed a predominance of Basidiomycota (49%) and Ascomycota (42%) in the fungal component; Bacteroidota (65.8%) is the main representative among the bacterial phyla. Basidiomycetes are almost exclusively represented by yeast-like fungi. Our findings provide the first comprehensive overview of both fungal and bacterial diversity in the Antarctic Polar Plateau’s surface snow/ice near Concordia Station and to identify seasonality as the main driver of microbial diversity; we also detected the most sensitive microorganisms to these factors, which could serve as indicators of human impact in this pristine environment and aid in planetary protection for future exploration missions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Biology 12 9 1193 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Antarctic Polar Plateau extremophiles life detection fungi bacteria amplicon sequencing Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
spellingShingle |
Antarctic Polar Plateau extremophiles life detection fungi bacteria amplicon sequencing Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Gerardo A. Stoppiello Claudia Coleine Ralf Moeller Caterina Ripa Daniela Billi Laura Selbmann Seasonality Is the Main Determinant of Microbial Diversity Associated to Snow/Ice around Concordia Station on the Antarctic Polar Plateau |
topic_facet |
Antarctic Polar Plateau extremophiles life detection fungi bacteria amplicon sequencing Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
description |
The French–Italian Concordia Research Station, situated on the Antarctic Polar Plateau at an elevation of 3233 m above sea level, offers a unique opportunity to study the presence and variation of microbes introduced by abiotic or biotic vectors and, consequently, appraise the amplitude of human impact in such a pristine environment. This research built upon a previous work, which explored microbial diversity in the surface snow surrounding the Concordia Research Station. While that study successfully characterized the bacterial assemblage, detecting fungal diversity was hampered by the low DNA content. To address this knowledge gap, in the present study, we optimized the sampling by increasing ice/snow collected to leverage the final DNA yield. The V4 variable region of the 16S rDNA and Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS1) rDNA was used to evaluate bacterial and fungal diversity. From the sequencing, we obtained 3,352,661 and 4,433,595 reads clustered in 930 and 3182 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) for fungi and bacteria, respectively. Amplicon sequencing revealed a predominance of Basidiomycota (49%) and Ascomycota (42%) in the fungal component; Bacteroidota (65.8%) is the main representative among the bacterial phyla. Basidiomycetes are almost exclusively represented by yeast-like fungi. Our findings provide the first comprehensive overview of both fungal and bacterial diversity in the Antarctic Polar Plateau’s surface snow/ice near Concordia Station and to identify seasonality as the main driver of microbial diversity; we also detected the most sensitive microorganisms to these factors, which could serve as indicators of human impact in this pristine environment and aid in planetary protection for future exploration missions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gerardo A. Stoppiello Claudia Coleine Ralf Moeller Caterina Ripa Daniela Billi Laura Selbmann |
author_facet |
Gerardo A. Stoppiello Claudia Coleine Ralf Moeller Caterina Ripa Daniela Billi Laura Selbmann |
author_sort |
Gerardo A. Stoppiello |
title |
Seasonality Is the Main Determinant of Microbial Diversity Associated to Snow/Ice around Concordia Station on the Antarctic Polar Plateau |
title_short |
Seasonality Is the Main Determinant of Microbial Diversity Associated to Snow/Ice around Concordia Station on the Antarctic Polar Plateau |
title_full |
Seasonality Is the Main Determinant of Microbial Diversity Associated to Snow/Ice around Concordia Station on the Antarctic Polar Plateau |
title_fullStr |
Seasonality Is the Main Determinant of Microbial Diversity Associated to Snow/Ice around Concordia Station on the Antarctic Polar Plateau |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonality Is the Main Determinant of Microbial Diversity Associated to Snow/Ice around Concordia Station on the Antarctic Polar Plateau |
title_sort |
seasonality is the main determinant of microbial diversity associated to snow/ice around concordia station on the antarctic polar plateau |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12091193 https://doaj.org/article/c72bfe82346a4cd7afd1c975acf15ee0 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_source |
Biology, Vol 12, Iss 1193, p 1193 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/12/9/1193 https://doaj.org/toc/2079-7737 doi:10.3390/biology12091193 2079-7737 https://doaj.org/article/c72bfe82346a4cd7afd1c975acf15ee0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12091193 |
container_title |
Biology |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
1193 |
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1781069069629259776 |