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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ftunivgent:oai:archive.ugent.be:8607964 2023-06-11T04:06:15+02:00 Uncovering the uncultivated majority in Antarctic soils : toward a synergistic approach Lambrechts, Sam Willems, Anne Tahon, Guillaume 2019 application/pdf https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8607964 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8607964 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8607964/file/8607968 eng eng https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8607964 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8607964 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8607964/file/8607968 No license (in copyright) info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY ISSN: 1664-302X Biology and Life Sciences Antarctica uncultivated majority cultivation terrestrial cultivation-independent metagenomics candidate phyla microbial dark matter SOR RONDANE MOUNTAINS 16S RIBOSOMAL-RNA NON-INDIGENOUS MICROORGANISMS MCMURDO DRY VALLEYS ROSS SEA REGION BACTERIAL DIVERSITY EAST ANTARCTICA VICTORIA LAND MICROBIAL DIVERSITY DOMINANT BACTERIA journalArticle info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2019 ftunivgent https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 2023-05-10T22:36:38Z 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 East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys Ross Sea Victoria Land Ghent University Academic Bibliography Antarctic East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys Ross Sea Sor Rondane Mountains ENVELOPE(25.000,25.000,-72.000,-72.000) Sor-Rondane ENVELOPE(25.000,25.000,-72.000,-72.000) The Antarctic Victoria Land Frontiers in Microbiology 10 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Ghent University Academic Bibliography |
op_collection_id |
ftunivgent |
language |
English |
topic |
Biology and Life Sciences Antarctica uncultivated majority cultivation terrestrial cultivation-independent metagenomics candidate phyla microbial dark matter SOR RONDANE MOUNTAINS 16S RIBOSOMAL-RNA NON-INDIGENOUS MICROORGANISMS MCMURDO DRY VALLEYS ROSS SEA REGION BACTERIAL DIVERSITY EAST ANTARCTICA VICTORIA LAND MICROBIAL DIVERSITY DOMINANT BACTERIA |
spellingShingle |
Biology and Life Sciences Antarctica uncultivated majority cultivation terrestrial cultivation-independent metagenomics candidate phyla microbial dark matter SOR RONDANE MOUNTAINS 16S RIBOSOMAL-RNA NON-INDIGENOUS MICROORGANISMS MCMURDO DRY VALLEYS ROSS SEA REGION BACTERIAL DIVERSITY EAST ANTARCTICA VICTORIA LAND MICROBIAL DIVERSITY DOMINANT BACTERIA Lambrechts, Sam Willems, Anne Tahon, Guillaume Uncovering the uncultivated majority in Antarctic soils : toward a synergistic approach |
topic_facet |
Biology and Life Sciences Antarctica uncultivated majority cultivation terrestrial cultivation-independent metagenomics candidate phyla microbial dark matter SOR RONDANE MOUNTAINS 16S RIBOSOMAL-RNA NON-INDIGENOUS MICROORGANISMS MCMURDO DRY VALLEYS ROSS SEA REGION BACTERIAL DIVERSITY EAST ANTARCTICA VICTORIA LAND MICROBIAL DIVERSITY DOMINANT BACTERIA |
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 |
Lambrechts, Sam Willems, Anne Tahon, Guillaume |
author_facet |
Lambrechts, Sam Willems, Anne Tahon, Guillaume |
author_sort |
Lambrechts, Sam |
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 |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8607964 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8607964 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8607964/file/8607968 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(25.000,25.000,-72.000,-72.000) ENVELOPE(25.000,25.000,-72.000,-72.000) |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys Ross Sea Sor Rondane Mountains Sor-Rondane The Antarctic Victoria Land |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys Ross Sea Sor Rondane Mountains Sor-Rondane The Antarctic Victoria Land |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys Ross Sea Victoria Land |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys Ross Sea Victoria Land |
op_source |
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY ISSN: 1664-302X |
op_relation |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8607964 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8607964 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8607964/file/8607968 |
op_rights |
No license (in copyright) info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00242 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Microbiology |
container_volume |
10 |
_version_ |
1768378078244896768 |