RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Rock traits drive complex microbial communities at the edge of life
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.08.04.455018
DO 10.1101/2021.08.04.455018
A1 Coleine, Claudia
A1 Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel
A1 Zerboni, Andrea
A1 Turchetti, Benedetta
A1 Buzzini, Pietro
A1 Selbmann, Laura
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/08/04/2021.08.04.455018.abstract
AB Antarctic deserts are among the driest and coldest ecosystems of the planet; there, some microbes hang on to life under these extreme conditions inside porous rocks, forming the so-called endolithic communities. Yet, the contribution of distinct rock traits to support complex microbial assemblies remains poorly determined. Here, we combined an extensive Antarctic rock survey with rock microbiome sequencing and ecological networks, and found that contrasting combinations of microclimatic and rock traits such as thermal inertia, porosity, iron concentration and quartz cement can help explain the multiple complex and independent microbial assemblies found in Antarctic rocks. Our work highlights the pivotal role of rocky substrate heterogeneity in sustaining contrasting groups of microorganisms, which is essential to understand life at the edge on Earth, and for searching life on other rocky planets such as Mars.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.