Diversity of Phototrophic Genes Suggests Multiple Bacteria May Be Able to Exploit Sunlight in Exposed Soils from the Sor Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica.

ABSTRACT: Microbial life in exposed terrestrial surface layers in continental Antarctica is faced with extreme environmental conditions, including scarcity of organic matter. Bacteria in these exposed settings can therefore be expected to use alternative energy sources such as solar energy, abundant during the austral summer. Using Illumina MiSeq sequencing, we assessed the diversity and abundance of four conserved protein encoding genes involved in different key steps of light-harvesting pathways dependent on (bacterio)chlorophyll (pufM, bchL/chlL, and bchX genes) and rhodopsins (actinorhodopsin genes), in exposed soils from the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica. Analysis of pufM genes, encoding a subunit of the type 2 photochemical reaction center found in anoxygen

SUBMITTER: Tahon G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5165242 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature