Genomic and phenotypic attributes of novel salinivibrios from stromatolites, sediment and water from a high altitude lake

Background: Salinivibrios are moderately halophilic bacteria found in salted meats, brines and hypersaline environments. We obtained three novel conspecific Salinivibrio strains closely related to S. costicola, from Socompa Lake, a high altitude hypersaline Andean lake (approx. 3,570 meters above the sea level).Results: The three novel Salinivibrio spp. were extremely resistant to arsenic (up to 200 mM HAsO42-), NaCl (up to 15%), and UV-B radiation (19 KJ/m2, corresponding to 240 minutes of exposure) by means of phenotypic tests. Our subsequent draft genome ionsequencing and RAST-based genome annotation revealed the presence of genes related to arsenic, NaCl, and UV radiation resistance. The three novel Salinivibrio genomes also had the xanthorhodopsin gene cluster phylogenetically related to Marinobacter and Spiribacter. The genomic taxonomy analysis, including multilocus sequence analysis, average amino acid identity, and genome-to-genome distance revealed that the three novel strains belong to a new Salinivibrio species.Conclusions: Arsenic resistance genes, genes involved in DNA repair, resistance to extreme environmental conditions and the possible light-based energy production, may represent important attributes of the novel salinivibrios, allowing these microbes to thrive in the Socompa Lake. © 2014 Gorriti et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.Fil: Gorriti, Marta Fabiana. Laboratório de Microbiologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil ; Brasil. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiologicos; ArgentinaFil: Dias, Graciela M.. Laboratório de Microbiologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil ; BrasilFil: Chimetto, Luciane A.. Laboratório de Microbiologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil ; BrasilFil: Trindade-Silva, Amaro E.. Laboratório de Microbiologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil ; BrasilFil: Silva, Bruno S.. Laboratório de Microbiologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil ; BrasilFil: Mesquita, Milene M.A.. Laboratório de Microbiologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil ; BrasilFil: Gregoracci, Gustavo B.. Laboratório de Microbiologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil ; BrasilFil: Farias, Maria Eugenia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiologicos; ArgentinaFil: Thompson, Cristiane C.. Laboratório de Microbiologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil ; BrasilFil: Thompson, Fabiano L.. Laboratório de Microbiologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brasil ; Brasi

Integral Prospection of Andean Microbial Ecosystem Project

When microbial ecosystems first started to be reported 10 years ago, nobody reallyhad a notion of the relevance they would have in the Central Andean region.Consequently, the heritage of the microbialites reported in El Peinado, LagunaNegra, Laguna Pozo Bravo, Laguna La Brava, etc. promises to position the Andes asreservoirs of the most relevant modern microbialites on the planet (Table 17.1,Fig. 17.1). Furthermore, the number of different ecosystems is worth paying closeattention to, as it gives rise to questions such as: What favors the development ofthese ecosystems? What are the conditions that influence the precipitation of a carbonaceousor a gypsum system at such a short distance and under similar environmentalconditions, such as at the Atacama salt flat? Why are oncolites distributed so? Untilnow, it has been possible only to survey the systems and to carry out more in-depthstudies in some of them to try to achieve their preservation. Throughout the prospection of the Andean microbial ecosystems (AMEs), some shared characteristics have beenfound from the geological, physical, and chemical points of view [(1) active volcanicincidence: all of the microbial ecosystems that have been found are in some way connectedto areas where active volcanoes are present; (2) underground water input;(3) mixed zones with different salinities: underground low-conductivitywater andsalar thalassic water; (4) two kinds of microbialites found: oncolites (at LagunaNegra, Tres Quebradas, Las Quinoas, etc.) or domes with thrombolites at the bottomand stromatolites at the top surface (at La Brava, Pozo Bravo, Ojos Bravos, and ElPeinado)] and from the biological point of view [(5) predominance of diatoms, themain component in all studied systems; (6) predominance of anaerobic over aerobicphotosynthetic microorganisms; (7) microbial rhodopsin as the main system for producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP); (8) arsenicresistance and bioenergetic mechanisms;and (9) predominance of Carbon fixation pathways other than the Calvincycle]. The biological aspects of these are being studied thoroughly in our lab and arebriefly discussed below.Fil: Farias, Maria Eugenia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Villafañe, Patricio Guillermo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Lencina, Agustina Inés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Catamarca. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Catamarca; Argentin