Baldanta Sara, Arnal Raquel, Blanco-Rivero Amaya, Guevara Govinda, Navarro Llorens Juana María
Metabolic Engineering Group, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Front Microbiol. 2023 Feb 17;14:982422. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.982422. eCollection 2023.
Microorganisms colonize a wide range of natural and artificial environments. Even though most of them are unculturable in laboratory conditions, some ecosystems are ideal niches for bioprospecting extremophiles with unique properties. Up today, there are few reports concerning microbial communities found on solar panels, a widespread, artificial, extreme habitat. Microorganisms found in this habitat belong to drought-, heat- and radiation-adapted genera, including fungi, bacteria, and cyanobacteria.
Here we isolated and identified several cyanobacteria from a solar panel. Then, some strains isolated were characterizated for their resistance to desiccation, UV-C exposition, and their growth on a range of temperature, pH, NaCl concentration or diverse carbon and nitrogen sources. Finally, gene transfer to these isolates was evaluated using several SEVA plasmids with different replicons to assess their potential in biotechnological applications.
This study presents the first identification and characterization of cultivable extremophile cyanobacteria from a solar panel in Valencia, Spain. The isolates are members of the genera , , , and all genera with species commonly isolated from deserts and arid regions. Four of the isolates were selected, all of them , and characterized. Our results showed that all isolates chosen were resistant up to a year of desiccation, viable after exposition to high doses of UV-C, and capable of being transformed. Our findings revealed that a solar panel is a useful ecological niche in searching for extremophilic cyanobacteria to further study the desiccation and UV-tolerance mechanisms. We conclude that these cyanobacteria can be modified and exploited as candidates for biotechnological purposes, including astrobiology applications.
微生物栖息于广泛的自然和人工环境中。尽管它们中的大多数在实验室条件下无法培养，但一些生态系统是用于生物勘探具有独特特性的极端微生物的理想生态位。到目前为止，关于在太阳能板上发现的微生物群落的报道很少，太阳能板是一种广泛存在的人工极端栖息地。在这个栖息地发现 的微生物属于适应干旱、高温和辐射的属，包括真菌、细菌和蓝细菌。
在这里，我们从一块太阳能板上分离并鉴定了几种蓝细菌。然后，对一些分离出的菌株进行了干燥抗性、紫外线C照射抗性以及在一系列温度、pH值、氯化钠浓度或不同碳源和氮源上生长情况的表征。最后，使用几种具有不同复制子的SEVA质粒评估这些分离株的基因转移情况，以评估它们在生物技术应用中的潜力。
本研究首次对西班牙巴伦西亚一块太阳能板上可培养的嗜极端蓝细菌进行了鉴定和表征。这些分离株属于 、 、 和 属，所有这些属的物种通常都从沙漠和干旱地区分离得到。选择了其中四个分离株，均为 属，并对其进行了表征。我们的结果表明，所有选择的 分离株在干燥长达一年的时间内具有抗性，在暴露于高剂量紫外线C后仍具有活力，并且能够被转化。我们的研究结果表明，太阳能板是寻找嗜极端蓝细菌以进一步研究干燥和紫外线耐受机制的有用生态位。我们得出结论，这些蓝细菌可以被改造并用作生物技术目的的候选者，包括天体生物学应用。
