Carbon fixation and rhodopsin systems in microbial mats from hypersaline lakes Brava and Tebenquiche, Salar de Atacama, Chile.

ABSTRACT: In this work, molecular diversity of two hypersaline microbial mats was compared by Whole Genome Shotgun (WGS) sequencing of environmental DNA from the mats. Brava and Tebenquiche are lakes in the Salar de Atacama, Chile, where microbial communities are growing in extreme conditions, including high salinity, high solar irradiance, and high levels of toxic metals and metaloids. Evaporation creates hypersaline conditions in these lakes and mineral precipitation is a characteristic geomicrobiological feature of these benthic ecosystems. The mat from Brava was more rich and diverse, with a higher number of different taxa and with species more evenly distributed. At the phylum level, Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Chloroflexi, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were the most abundant, including ~75%

SUBMITTER: Kurth D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7872239 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature