Culture-Dependent and Amplicon Sequencing Approaches Reveal Diversity and Distribution of Black Fungi in Antarctic Cryptoendolithic Communities.

ABSTRACT: In the harshest environmental conditions of the Antarctic desert, normally incompatible with active life, microbes are adapted to exploit the cryptoendolithic habitat (i.e., pore spaces of rocks) and represent the predominant life-forms. In the rocky niche, microbes take advantage of the thermal buffering, physical stability, protection against UV radiation, excessive solar radiation, and water retention-of paramount importance in one of the driest environments on Earth. In this work, high-throughput sequencing and culture-dependent approaches have been combined, for the first time, to untangle the diversity and distribution of black fungi in the Antarctic cryptoendolithic microbial communities, hosting some of the most extreme-tolerant microorganisms. Rock samples were collected in a vast

SUBMITTER: Selbmann L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8001563 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature