Sublithic bacteria associated with Antarctic quartz stones

By Matthew C Smith, J. Bowman, F. Scott, M. Line. Antarctic Science, 2000

93 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Quartz stone sublithic cyanobacterial communities are common throughout the Vestfold Hills, Eastern Antarctica (68°S 78°E) contributing biomass in areas otherwise devoid of any type of vegetation. In this study, the sublithic microbial community and underlying soil was investigated using a variety of traditional and molecular methods. Although direct epifluorescent counts of the sublithic growth (average 1.1 × 109 cells g−1 dry weight) and underlying soil (0.5 × 109 cells g−1 dry weight) were similar, sublith viable counts (2.1 × 107 cfu g−1 dry weight) were on average 3-orders of magnitude higher in the subliths. Enrichment and molecular analyses revealed the predominate cyanobacteria were non-halophilic, able to grow optimally at 15–20°C, and were related to the Phormidium subgroup with several distinct morphotypes and phylotypes present. Sublithic heterotrophic bacterial populations and those of underlying soils included mostly psychrotolerant taxa typical of Antarctic soil. However, psychrophilic and halophilic bacteria, mostly members of the alpha subdivision of the Proteobacteria and the order Cytophagales, were abundant in the sublithic growth film (20–40% of the viable count and about 50% of isolated individual taxa) but absent from underlying soils. It is suggested that quartz stone subliths might constitute a “refuge” for psychrophilic bacteria.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Ecology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d23dda9e2a81cd042303379596adf45b27d83d39

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In Atmospheric Science

Warwick F. Vincent

In Ecology

Citations in the corpus

POLYPHASIC STUDY OF ANTARCTIC CYANOBACTERIAL STRAINS 1 (2006, background): “This hypothesis is even more probable, given that the PCR and cloning biases that are well known in molecular ecology (Speksnijder et al. 2001), are not relevant here.”
Cyanobacteria in Cold Ecosystems (2008, methodology): “Strains have been isolated from the same regions, as well as from the Dronning Maud Land (Rudi et al. 1997; Vincent et al. 2000; Smith et al. 2000; Billi et al. 2001; Nadeau et al. 2001; Casamatta et al. 2005; Taton et al. 2006b; Comte et al. 2007).”
Cold Tolerance in Cyanobacteria and Life in the Cryosphere (2007, background): “For example, cyanobacteria in both Polar Regions are successful in habitats in rock cracks, as layers beneath the surface of rocks and underneath translucent rocks in which solar exposure is greatly attenuated (Smith et al., 2000; Cockell and Stokes, 2004).”
Dominant bacteria in soils of Marble Point and Wright Valley, Victoria Land, Antarctica (2006, background): “Bacteroidetes are have been reported in Antarctic soil 16S rRNA gene clone libraries (Smith et al., 2000; Shivaji et al., 2004; Saul et al., 2005) and many have been cultured from Antarctic terrestrial environments and assigned to various genera, including Sphingobacterium (Wery et al., 2003; Shivaj”
Evidence for widespread endemism among Antarctic micro-organisms (2010, background): “Although several studies indicate the existence of genotypes found only in Antarctica (e.g. Priscu et al., 1998; Bowman et al., 2000; Smith et al., 2000; Vincent, 2000; Nadeau et al., 2001; Christner et al., 2003; de la Torre et al., 2003; Taton et al., 2003; Casamatta et al., 2005; Jungblut et…”
The ecology of Cytophaga-Flavobacteria in aquatic environments. (2002, background): “Bacteria in the Bacteroidetes division can be found in just about every habitat in the biosphere, including kusaya [13] (a Japanese delicacy consisting of putrid ¢sh), rumens [14], hydrothermal vents [15], rocks and sea-ice in Antarctica [16], and sediments of lakes and the oceans [17].”