Snow Surface Microbial Diversity at the Detection Limit within the Vicinity of the Concordia Station, Antarctica.

ABSTRACT: The Concordia Research Station provides a unique location for preparatory activities for future human journey to Mars, to explore microbial diversity at subzero temperatures, and monitor the dissemination of human-associated microorganisms within the pristine surrounding environment. Amplicon sequencing was leveraged to investigate the microbial diversity of surface snow samples collected monthly over a two-year period, at three distances from the Station (10, 500, and 1000 m). Even when the extracted total DNA was below the detection limit, 16S rRNA gene sequencing was successfully performed on all samples, while 18S rRNA was amplified on 19 samples out of 51. No significant relationships were observed between microbial diversity and seasonality (summer or winter) or distance from the Con

SUBMITTER: Napoli A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9863605 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature