Martin-Andres Irene, Sobrado Jesús, Cavalcante Erika, Quesada Antonio
Departamento de Biología Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Lehrstuhl für Biotechnologie, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
Front Microbiol. 2024 Apr 5;15:1350457. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1350457. eCollection 2024.
Antarctica is one of the most outstanding analogs of Mars, and cyanobacterial mats are considered one of the most resilient biological consortia. The purpose of this study is to find out the effect of the Martian conditions on an Antarctic cyanobacterial mat. We exposed an Antarctic microbial mat to Martian conditions in a simulating chamber (MARTE) for 15 d and investigated the variations in the consortium by the use of 16S rRNA gene expression as an indicator of the biological activity. Metabarcoding using the V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene was used to determine the succession of the active members of the microbial consortium during the experiment. The results showed that the microbial mat, far from collapsing, can survive the stringent conditions in the simulating chamber. Different behaviors were displayed depending on the metabolic capabilities and physiological characteristics of every taxon. The main conclusion is that the Martian conditions did not impair growth in some of the groups, and thus, the investigated Antarctic community would be able to survive in a Martian environment at least during the short experimental period, although elements of the community were affected in different ways.
南极洲是火星最典型的类似环境之一,而蓝藻菌席被认为是最具适应力的生物群落之一。本研究的目的是探究火星环境条件对南极蓝藻菌席的影响。我们将一块南极微生物菌席置于模拟舱(MARTE)中,使其暴露于火星环境条件下15天,并通过使用16S rRNA基因表达作为生物活性指标来研究该群落的变化情况。利用16S rRNA基因的V3-V4区域进行元条形码分析,以确定实验过程中微生物群落活跃成员的演替情况。结果表明,该微生物菌席远未崩溃,能够在模拟舱的严苛条件下存活。不同分类群根据其代谢能力和生理特征表现出不同的行为。主要结论是,火星环境条件并未损害某些类群的生长,因此,尽管群落中的一些成分受到了不同程度的影响,但至少在较短的实验期内,所研究的南极群落能够在火星环境中存活。