Actinobacterial Rare Biospheres and Dark Matter Revealed in Habitats of the Chilean Atacama Desert.

ABSTRACT: The Atacama Desert is the most extreme non-polar biome on Earth, the core region of which is considered to represent the dry limit for life and to be an analogue for Martian soils. This study focused on actinobacteria because they are keystone species in terrestrial ecosystems and are acknowledged as an unrivalled source of bioactive compounds. Metagenomic analyses of hyper-arid and extreme hyper-arid soils in this desert revealed a remarkable degree of actinobacterial 'dark matter', evidenced by a detected increase of 34% in families against those that are validly published. Rank-abundance analyses indicated that these soils were high-diversity habitats and that the great majority of designated 'rare' genera (up to 60% of all phylotypes) were always rare. These studies have enabled a core

SUBMITTER: Idris H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5566421 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature