Physiology, Metabolism, and Fossilization of Hot-Spring Filamentous Microbial Mats.

ABSTRACT: The evolutionarily ancient Aquificales bacterium Sulfurihydrogenibium spp. dominates filamentous microbial mat communities in shallow, fast-flowing, and dysoxic hot-spring drainage systems around the world. In the present study, field observations of these fettuccini-like microbial mats at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park are integrated with geology, geochemistry, hydrology, microscopy, and multi-omic molecular biology analyses. Strategic sampling of living filamentous mats along with the hot-spring CaCO₃ (travertine) in which they are actively being entombed and fossilized has permitted the first direct linkage of Sulfurihydrogenibium spp. physiology and metabolism with the formation of distinct travertine streamer microbial biomarkers. Resu

SUBMITTER: Dong Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6918859 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature