Department of Ecological and Biological Sciences, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy.
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Planetary Research, Planetary Laboratories, Research Group Astrobiological Laboratories, Berlin, Germany.
Environ Microbiol. 2021 Jul;23(7):4002-4016. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.15419. Epub 2021 Feb 14.
The diversity and composition of Antarctic cryptoendolithic microbial communities in the Mars-analogue site of Helliwell Hills (Northern Victoria Land, Continental Antarctica) are investigated, for the first time, applying both culture-dependent and high-throughput sequencing approaches. The study includes all the domains of the tree of life: Eukaryotes, Bacteria and Archaea to give a complete overview of biodiversity and community structure. Furthermore, to explore the geographic distribution of endoliths throughout the Victoria Land (Continental Antarctica), we compared the fungal and bacterial community composition and structure of endolithically colonized rocks, collected in >30 sites in 10 years of Italian Antarctic Expeditions. Compared with the fungi and other eukaryotes, the prokaryotic communities were richer in species, more diverse and highly heterogeneous. Despite the diverse community compositions, shared populations were found and were dominant in all sites. Local diversification was observed and included prokaryotes as members of Alphaproteobacteria and Crenarchaeota (Archaea), the last detected for the first time in these cryptoendolithic communities. Few eukaryotes, namely lichen-forming fungal species as Lecidella grenii, were detected in Helliwell Hills only. These findings suggest that geographic distance and isolation in these remote areas may promote the establishment of peculiar locally diversified microorganisms.
本研究首次采用培养依赖和高通量测序方法，调查了南极 cryptoendolithic 微生物群落的多样性和组成在火星模拟地点的 Helliwell 山（南极维多利亚地北部）。该研究涵盖了生命之树的所有领域：真核生物、细菌和古菌，以全面了解生物多样性和群落结构。此外，为了探索维多利亚地（南极大陆）中内生石的地理分布，我们比较了在 10 年内意大利南极探险队在 30 多个地点采集的内生石定殖岩石的真菌和细菌群落组成和结构。与真菌和其他真核生物相比，原核生物群落的物种更丰富、更多样化且高度异质。尽管群落组成多样，但在所有地点都发现了共享种群并占主导地位。观察到局部多样化，包括 alpha 变形菌门和泉古菌门（古菌）中的原核生物，这是最后一次在这些 cryptoendolithic 群落中检测到。仅在 Helliwell 山检测到少数真核生物，即地衣形成真菌 Lecidella grenii。这些发现表明，这些偏远地区的地理距离和隔离可能促进了独特的局部多样化微生物的建立。
