Bacterial community structure and metabolic potential in microbialite-forming mats from South Australian saline lakes.

ABSTRACT: Microbialites are sedimentary rocks created in association with benthic microorganisms. While they harbour complex microbial communities, Cyanobacteria perform critical roles in sediment stabilisation and accretion. Microbialites have been described from permanent and ephemeral saline lakes in South Australia; however, the microbial communities that generate and inhabit these biogeological structures have not been studied in detail. To address this knowledge gap, we investigated the composition, diversity and metabolic potential of bacterial communities from different microbialite-forming mats and surrounding sediments in five South Australian saline coastal lakes using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and predictive metagenome analyses. While Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phy

SUBMITTER: Nguyen STT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9311741 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature