Actinobacterial Rare Biospheres and Dark Matter Revealed in Habitats of the Chilean Atacama Desert

Abstract The Atacama Desert is the most extreme non-polar biome on Earth, the core region of which is considered to represent the dry limit for life and to be an analogue for Martian soils. This study focused on actinobacteria because they are keystone species in terrestrial ecosystems and are ackno...

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Autores principales:	Hamidah Idris, Michael Goodfellow, Roy Sanderson, Juan A. Asenjo, Alan T. Bull
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/f1d8f84c67824c2b885c489236273fce
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f1d8f84c67824c2b885c489236273fce2021-12-02T16:06:32ZActinobacterial Rare Biospheres and Dark Matter Revealed in Habitats of the Chilean Atacama Desert10.1038/s41598-017-08937-42045-2322https://doaj.org/article/f1d8f84c67824c2b885c489236273fce2017-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08937-4https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The Atacama Desert is the most extreme non-polar biome on Earth, the core region of which is considered to represent the dry limit for life and to be an analogue for Martian soils. This study focused on actinobacteria because they are keystone species in terrestrial ecosystems and are acknowledged as an unrivalled source of bioactive compounds. Metagenomic analyses of hyper-arid and extreme hyper-arid soils in this desert revealed a remarkable degree of actinobacterial ‘dark matter’, evidenced by a detected increase of 34% in families against those that are validly published. Rank-abundance analyses indicated that these soils were high-diversity habitats and that the great majority of designated ‘rare’ genera (up to 60% of all phylotypes) were always rare. These studies have enabled a core actinobacterial microbiome common to both habitats to be defined. The great majority of detected taxa have not been recovered by culture dependent methods, neither, with very few exceptions, has their functional ecology been explored. A microbial seed bank of this magnitude has significance not just for Atacama soil ecosystem resilience but represents an enormous untapped resource for biotechnology discovery programmes in an era where resistance to existing antibiotics is rapidly becoming a major threat to global health.Hamidah IdrisMichael GoodfellowRoy SandersonJuan A. AsenjoAlan T. BullNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Hamidah Idris Michael Goodfellow Roy Sanderson Juan A. Asenjo Alan T. Bull Actinobacterial Rare Biospheres and Dark Matter Revealed in Habitats of the Chilean Atacama Desert
description	Abstract The Atacama Desert is the most extreme non-polar biome on Earth, the core region of which is considered to represent the dry limit for life and to be an analogue for Martian soils. This study focused on actinobacteria because they are keystone species in terrestrial ecosystems and are acknowledged as an unrivalled source of bioactive compounds. Metagenomic analyses of hyper-arid and extreme hyper-arid soils in this desert revealed a remarkable degree of actinobacterial ‘dark matter’, evidenced by a detected increase of 34% in families against those that are validly published. Rank-abundance analyses indicated that these soils were high-diversity habitats and that the great majority of designated ‘rare’ genera (up to 60% of all phylotypes) were always rare. These studies have enabled a core actinobacterial microbiome common to both habitats to be defined. The great majority of detected taxa have not been recovered by culture dependent methods, neither, with very few exceptions, has their functional ecology been explored. A microbial seed bank of this magnitude has significance not just for Atacama soil ecosystem resilience but represents an enormous untapped resource for biotechnology discovery programmes in an era where resistance to existing antibiotics is rapidly becoming a major threat to global health.
format	article
author	Hamidah Idris Michael Goodfellow Roy Sanderson Juan A. Asenjo Alan T. Bull
author_facet	Hamidah Idris Michael Goodfellow Roy Sanderson Juan A. Asenjo Alan T. Bull
author_sort	Hamidah Idris
title	Actinobacterial Rare Biospheres and Dark Matter Revealed in Habitats of the Chilean Atacama Desert
title_short	Actinobacterial Rare Biospheres and Dark Matter Revealed in Habitats of the Chilean Atacama Desert
title_full	Actinobacterial Rare Biospheres and Dark Matter Revealed in Habitats of the Chilean Atacama Desert
title_fullStr	Actinobacterial Rare Biospheres and Dark Matter Revealed in Habitats of the Chilean Atacama Desert
title_full_unstemmed	Actinobacterial Rare Biospheres and Dark Matter Revealed in Habitats of the Chilean Atacama Desert
title_sort	actinobacterial rare biospheres and dark matter revealed in habitats of the chilean atacama desert
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/f1d8f84c67824c2b885c489236273fce
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Actinobacterial Rare Biospheres and Dark Matter Revealed in Habitats of the Chilean Atacama Desert

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