Soil Microbiomes With the Genetic Capacity for Atmospheric Chemosynthesis Are Widespread Across the Poles and Are Associated With Moisture, Carbon, and Nitrogen Limitation.

ABSTRACT: Soil microbiomes within oligotrophic cold deserts are extraordinarily diverse. Increasingly, oligotrophic sites with low levels of phototrophic primary producers are reported, leading researchers to question their carbon and energy sources. A novel microbial carbon fixation process termed atmospheric chemosynthesis recently filled this gap as it was shown to be supporting primary production at two Eastern Antarctic deserts. Atmospheric chemosynthesis uses energy liberated from the oxidation of atmospheric hydrogen to drive the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle through a new chemotrophic form of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO), designated IE. Here, we propose that the genetic determinants of this process; RuBisCO type IE (rbcL1E) and high affinity group 1h-[

SUBMITTER: Ray AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7437527 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature