Specific adaptations are selected in opposite sun exposed Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities as revealed by untargeted metabolomics.

ABSTRACT: Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities are self-supporting borderline ecosystems spreading across the extreme conditions of the Antarctic desert and represent the predominant life-form in the ice-free areas of McMurdo Dry Valleys, accounted as the closest terrestrial Martian analogue. Components of these communities are highly adapted extremophiles and extreme-tolerant microorganisms, among the most resistant known to date. Recently, studies investigated biodiversity and community composition in these ecosystems but the metabolic activity of the metacommunity has never been investigated. Using an untargeted metabolomics, we explored stress-response of communities spreading in two sites of the same location, subjected to increasing environmental pressure due to opposite sun exposure, accoun

SUBMITTER: Coleine C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7253227 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature