Extremophile hypolithic communities in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica
The Vestfold Hills are a 400 km2, isolated ice-free oasis in eastern Antarctica featuring large areas with translucent quartz rocks that provide habitat for hypolithic microbial communities underneath. We used high-throughput DNA sequencing of 16S and 18S ribosomal RNA amplicons to characterize bact...
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ftunivwollongong:oai:ro.uow.edu.au:test2021-17058 2024-06-02T07:56:16+00:00 Extremophile hypolithic communities in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica Clarke, Laurence J. Raes, Eric J. Travers, Toby Virtue, Patti Bergstrom, Dana M. 2024-01-01T08:00:00Z https://ro.uow.edu.au/test2021/11511 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102023000408 unknown Research Online https://ro.uow.edu.au/test2021/11511 doi:10.1017/S0954102023000408 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102023000408 Scopus Harvesting Series 16S/18S ribosomal RNA gene bacteria Cyanobacteria dispersal limitation eukaryote high-throughput DNA sequencing text 2024 ftunivwollongong https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102023000408 2024-05-07T23:35:17Z The Vestfold Hills are a 400 km2, isolated ice-free oasis in eastern Antarctica featuring large areas with translucent quartz rocks that provide habitat for hypolithic microbial communities underneath. We used high-throughput DNA sequencing of 16S and 18S ribosomal RNA amplicons to characterize bacterial and eukaryotic hypolithic communities across the Vestfold Hills. We found high-level, local heterogeneity in community structure consistent with limited dispersal between hypoliths. Hypolithic communities were dominated by heterotrophic Bacteroidetes (mean bacterial relative read abundance: 56%) as well as Cyanobacteria (35%), with the eukaryote component often dominated by Chlorophyta (43%). Small but significant proportions of the variation in microbial community composition and function were explained by soil salinity (5-7%) and water availability (8-11%), with distinct taxa associated with different salinities and water availabilities. Furthermore, many inferred bacterial metabolic pathways were enriched in hypolithic communities from either dry or high-salinity sites. Vestfold Hills hypolithic habitats are likely to be local refuges for bacterial and eukaryotic diversity. Gradients in soil salinity and water availability across the Vestfold Hills, in addition to the number and diversity of lake types and fjords as potential source populations, may contribute to the observed variation in the extremophile, hypolithic microbial community composition. Text Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica University of Wollongong, Australia: Research Online East Antarctica Vestfold Vestfold Hills Antarctic Science 36 1 20 36 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Wollongong, Australia: Research Online |
op_collection_id |
ftunivwollongong |
language |
unknown |
topic |
16S/18S ribosomal RNA gene bacteria Cyanobacteria dispersal limitation eukaryote high-throughput DNA sequencing |
spellingShingle |
16S/18S ribosomal RNA gene bacteria Cyanobacteria dispersal limitation eukaryote high-throughput DNA sequencing Clarke, Laurence J. Raes, Eric J. Travers, Toby Virtue, Patti Bergstrom, Dana M. Extremophile hypolithic communities in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica |
topic_facet |
16S/18S ribosomal RNA gene bacteria Cyanobacteria dispersal limitation eukaryote high-throughput DNA sequencing |
description |
The Vestfold Hills are a 400 km2, isolated ice-free oasis in eastern Antarctica featuring large areas with translucent quartz rocks that provide habitat for hypolithic microbial communities underneath. We used high-throughput DNA sequencing of 16S and 18S ribosomal RNA amplicons to characterize bacterial and eukaryotic hypolithic communities across the Vestfold Hills. We found high-level, local heterogeneity in community structure consistent with limited dispersal between hypoliths. Hypolithic communities were dominated by heterotrophic Bacteroidetes (mean bacterial relative read abundance: 56%) as well as Cyanobacteria (35%), with the eukaryote component often dominated by Chlorophyta (43%). Small but significant proportions of the variation in microbial community composition and function were explained by soil salinity (5-7%) and water availability (8-11%), with distinct taxa associated with different salinities and water availabilities. Furthermore, many inferred bacterial metabolic pathways were enriched in hypolithic communities from either dry or high-salinity sites. Vestfold Hills hypolithic habitats are likely to be local refuges for bacterial and eukaryotic diversity. Gradients in soil salinity and water availability across the Vestfold Hills, in addition to the number and diversity of lake types and fjords as potential source populations, may contribute to the observed variation in the extremophile, hypolithic microbial community composition. |
format |
Text |
author |
Clarke, Laurence J. Raes, Eric J. Travers, Toby Virtue, Patti Bergstrom, Dana M. |
author_facet |
Clarke, Laurence J. Raes, Eric J. Travers, Toby Virtue, Patti Bergstrom, Dana M. |
author_sort |
Clarke, Laurence J. |
title |
Extremophile hypolithic communities in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica |
title_short |
Extremophile hypolithic communities in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica |
title_full |
Extremophile hypolithic communities in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Extremophile hypolithic communities in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Extremophile hypolithic communities in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica |
title_sort |
extremophile hypolithic communities in the vestfold hills, east antarctica |
publisher |
Research Online |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://ro.uow.edu.au/test2021/11511 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102023000408 |
geographic |
East Antarctica Vestfold Vestfold Hills |
geographic_facet |
East Antarctica Vestfold Vestfold Hills |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica |
op_source |
Scopus Harvesting Series |
op_relation |
https://ro.uow.edu.au/test2021/11511 doi:10.1017/S0954102023000408 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102023000408 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102023000408 |
container_title |
Antarctic Science |
container_volume |
36 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
20 |
op_container_end_page |
36 |
_version_ |
1800754691651403776 |