Microbial dark matter filling the niche in hypersaline microbial mats.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Shark Bay, Australia, harbours one of the most extensive and diverse systems of living microbial mats that are proposed to be analogs of some of the earliest ecosystems on Earth. These ecosystems have been shown to possess a substantial abundance of uncultivable microorganisms. These enigmatic microbes, jointly coined as 'microbial dark matter' (MDM), are hypothesised to play key roles in modern microbial mats.

Results

We reconstructed 115 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) affiliated to MDM, spanning 42 phyla. This study reports for the first time novel microorganisms (Zixibacterial order GN15) putatively taking part in dissimilatory sulfate reduction in surface hypersaline settings, as well as novel eukaryote signature proteins in the Asgard archaea. Despite po

SUBMITTER: Wong HL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7495880 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature