Metabolic Potential of Microbial Communities in the Hypersaline Sediments of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

ABSTRACT: The Bonneville Salt Flats (BSF) appear to be entirely desolate when viewed from above, but they host rich microbial communities just below the surface salt crust. In this study, we investigated the metabolic potential of the BSF microbial ecosystem. The predicted and measured metabolic activities provide new insights into the ecosystem functions of evaporite landscapes and are an important analog for potential subsurface microbial ecosystems on ancient and modern Mars. Hypersaline and evaporite systems have been investigated previously as astrobiological analogs for Mars and other salty celestial bodies, but these studies have generally focused on aquatic systems and cultivation-dependent approaches. Here, we present an ecosystem-level examination of metabolic pathways within the shallow s

SUBMITTER: McGonigle JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9765009 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature