TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparative metagenomics of eight geographically remote terrestrial hot springs
AU - Menzel, Peter
AU - Islin, Sóley Ruth
AU - Rike, Anne Gunn
AU - Lin, Lianbing
AU - Zhang, Qi
AU - Contursi, Patrizia
AU - Moracci, Marco
AU - Kristjansson, Jakob K
AU - Bolduc, Benjamin
AU - Gavrilov, Sergey
AU - Ravin, Nikolai
AU - Mardanov, Andrey
AU - Bonch-Osmolovskaya, Elizaveta
AU - Young, Mark
AU - Krogh, Anders
AU - Peng, Xu
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Hot springs are natural habitats for thermophilic Archaea and Bacteria. In this paper, we present the metagenomic analysis of eight globally distributed terrestrial hot springs from China, Iceland, Italy, Russia, and the USA with a temperature range between 61 and 92 (∘)C and pH between 1.8 and 7. A comparison of the biodiversity and community composition generally showed a decrease in biodiversity with increasing temperature and decreasing pH. Another important factor shaping microbial diversity of the studied sites was the abundance of organic substrates. Several species of the Crenarchaeal order Thermoprotei were detected, whereas no single bacterial species was found in all samples, suggesting a better adaptation of certain archaeal species to different thermophilic environments. Two hot springs show high abundance of Acidithiobacillus, supporting the idea of a true thermophilic Acidithiobacillus species that can thrive in hyperthermophilic environments. Depending on the sample, up to 58 % of sequencing reads could not be assigned to a known phylum, reinforcing the fact that a large number of microorganisms in nature, including those thriving in hot environments remain to be isolated and characterized.
AB - Hot springs are natural habitats for thermophilic Archaea and Bacteria. In this paper, we present the metagenomic analysis of eight globally distributed terrestrial hot springs from China, Iceland, Italy, Russia, and the USA with a temperature range between 61 and 92 (∘)C and pH between 1.8 and 7. A comparison of the biodiversity and community composition generally showed a decrease in biodiversity with increasing temperature and decreasing pH. Another important factor shaping microbial diversity of the studied sites was the abundance of organic substrates. Several species of the Crenarchaeal order Thermoprotei were detected, whereas no single bacterial species was found in all samples, suggesting a better adaptation of certain archaeal species to different thermophilic environments. Two hot springs show high abundance of Acidithiobacillus, supporting the idea of a true thermophilic Acidithiobacillus species that can thrive in hyperthermophilic environments. Depending on the sample, up to 58 % of sequencing reads could not be assigned to a known phylum, reinforcing the fact that a large number of microorganisms in nature, including those thriving in hot environments remain to be isolated and characterized.
U2 - 10.1007/s00248-015-0576-9
DO - 10.1007/s00248-015-0576-9
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 25712554
VL - 70
SP - 411
EP - 424
JO - Microbial Ecology
JF - Microbial Ecology
SN - 0095-3628
IS - 2
ER -