RT Journal Article
T1 Prokaryotic and viral community of the sulfate‐rich crust from Peñahueca ephemeral lake, an astrobiology analogue
A1 Martin Cuadrado, Ana Belen
A1 Senel, Ece
A1 Martínez García, Manuel
A1 Cifuentes, Ana
A1 Santos, Fernando
A1 Almansa, Cristina
A1 Moreno Paz, Mercedes
A1 Blanco, Yolanda
A1 García Villadangos, Miriam
A1 García del Cura, M. Ángeles
A1 Sanz Montero, María Esther
A1 Rodríguez Aranda, Juan Pablo
AB Peñahueca is an athalassohaline hypersaline inland ephemeral lake originated under semiarid conditions in the central Iberian Peninsula (Spain). Its chemical composition makes it extreme for microbial life as well as a terrestrial analogue of other planetary environments. To investigate the persistence of microbial life associated with sulfate‐rich crusts, we applied cultivation‐independent methods (optical and electron microscopy, 16S rRNA gene profiling and metagenomics) to describe the prokaryotic community and its associated viruses. The diversity for Bacteria was very low and was vastly dominated by endospore formers related to Pontibacillus marinus of the Firmicutes phylum. The archaeal assemblage was more diverse and included taxa related to those normally found in hypersaline environments. Several ‘metagenome assembled genomes’ were recovered, corresponding to new species of Pontibacillus, several species from the Halobacteria and one new member of the Nanohaloarchaeota. The viral assemblage, although composed of the morphotypes typical of high salt systems, showed little similarity to previously isolated/reconstructed halophages. Several putative prophages of Pontibacillus and haloarchaeal hosts were identified. Remarkably, the Peñahueca sulfate‐rich metagenome contained CRISPR‐associated proteins and repetitions which were over 10‐fold higher than in most hypersaline systems analysed so far.
PB Wiley
SN 1462-2912, ESSN: 1462-2920
YR 2019
FD 2019-10
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/13730
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/13730
LA eng
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)
NO Unidad de Excelencia "Maria de Maeztu"/FEDER
DS Docta Complutense
RD 22 abr 2025