TY - JOUR
T1 - Hot in cold
T2 - Microbial life in the hottest springs in permafrost
AU - Kochetkova, Tatiana V.
AU - Toshchakov, Stepan V.
AU - Zayulina, Kseniya S.
AU - Elcheninov, Alexander G.
AU - Zavarzina, Daria G.
AU - Lavrushin, Vasiliy Yu
AU - Bonch-Osmolovskaya, Elizaveta A.
AU - Kublanov, Ilya V.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/9
Y1 - 2020/9
N2 - Chukotka is an arctic region located in the continuous permafrost zone, but thermal springs are abundant there. In this study, for the first time, the microbial communities of the Chukotka hot springs (CHS) biofilms and sediments with temperatures 54–94◦C were investigated and analyzed by NGS sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons. In microbial mats (54–75◦C), phototrophic bacteria of genus Chloroflexus dominated (up to 89% of all prokaryotes), while Aquificae were the most numerous at higher temperatures in Fe-rich sediments and filamentous “streamers” (up to 92%). The electron donors typical for Aquificae, such as H2S and H2, are absent or present only in trace amounts, and the prevalence of Aquificae might be connected with their ability to oxidize the ferrous iron present in CHS sediments. Armatimonadetes, Proteobacteria, Deinococcus-Thermus, Dictyoglomi, and Thermotogae, as well as uncultured bacteria (candidate divisions Oct-Spa1-106, GAL15, and OPB56), were numerous, and Cyanobacteria were present in low numbers. Archaea (less than 8% of the total community of each tested spring) belonged to Bathyarchaeota, Aigarchaeota, and Thaumarchaeota. The geographical location and the predominantly autotrophic microbial community, built on mechanisms other than the sulfur cycle-based ones, make CHS a special and unique terrestrial geothermal ecosystem.
AB - Chukotka is an arctic region located in the continuous permafrost zone, but thermal springs are abundant there. In this study, for the first time, the microbial communities of the Chukotka hot springs (CHS) biofilms and sediments with temperatures 54–94◦C were investigated and analyzed by NGS sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons. In microbial mats (54–75◦C), phototrophic bacteria of genus Chloroflexus dominated (up to 89% of all prokaryotes), while Aquificae were the most numerous at higher temperatures in Fe-rich sediments and filamentous “streamers” (up to 92%). The electron donors typical for Aquificae, such as H2S and H2, are absent or present only in trace amounts, and the prevalence of Aquificae might be connected with their ability to oxidize the ferrous iron present in CHS sediments. Armatimonadetes, Proteobacteria, Deinococcus-Thermus, Dictyoglomi, and Thermotogae, as well as uncultured bacteria (candidate divisions Oct-Spa1-106, GAL15, and OPB56), were numerous, and Cyanobacteria were present in low numbers. Archaea (less than 8% of the total community of each tested spring) belonged to Bathyarchaeota, Aigarchaeota, and Thaumarchaeota. The geographical location and the predominantly autotrophic microbial community, built on mechanisms other than the sulfur cycle-based ones, make CHS a special and unique terrestrial geothermal ecosystem.
KW - Chukotka
KW - Hot spring
KW - Microbial diversity
KW - NGS sequencing
KW - Permafrost
KW - Polar environments
KW - Thermophiles
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85093900502&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/microorganisms8091308
DO - 10.3390/microorganisms8091308
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AN - SCOPUS:85093900502
SN - 2076-2607
VL - 8
SP - 1
EP - 18
JO - Microorganisms
JF - Microorganisms
IS - 9
M1 - 1308
ER -