Carbon Oxidation State in Microbial Polar Lipids Suggests Adaptation to Hot Spring Temperature and Redox Gradients.

ABSTRACT: The influence of oxidation-reduction (redox) potential on the expression of biomolecules is a topic of ongoing exploration in geobiology. In this study, we investigate the novel possibility that structures and compositions of lipids produced by microbial communities are sensitive to environmental redox conditions. We extracted lipids from microbial biomass collected along the thermal and redox gradients of four alkaline hot springs in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) and investigated patterns in the average oxidation state of carbon (ZC), a metric calculated from the chemical formulae of lipid structures. Carbon in intact polar lipids (IPLs) and their alkyl chains becomes more oxidized (higher ZC) with increasing distance from each of the four hot spring sources. This coincides with decreas

SUBMITTER: Boyer GM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7044123 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature