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Hypolithic microbial communities of quartz rocks from Miers Valley, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

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Abstract

The McMurdo Dry Valleys region of eastern Antarctica is a cold desert that presents extreme challenges to life. Hypolithic microbial colonisation of the subsoil surfaces of translucent quartz rocks represent a significant source of terrestrial biomass and productivity in this region. Previous studies have described hypoliths as dominated by cyanobacteria. However, hypoliths that occur in the lower Dry Valleys such as the Miers, Garwood and Marshall Valleys are unusual as they are not necessarily cyanobacteria-dominated. These hypoliths support significant eukaryal colonisation by fungi and mosses in addition to cyanobacteria-dominated bacterial assemblages and so have considerable ecological value in this barren landscape. Here, we characterise these novel hypoliths by analysis of environmental rRNA gene sequences. The hypolithic community was demonstrated to be distinct from the surrounding soil and non-translucent rocks. Hypoliths supported cyanobacterial signatures from the Oscillatoriales and Nostocales. Other heterotrophic bacterial signatures were also recovered, and these were phylogenetically diverse and spanned 8 other bacterial phyla. Archaeal phylotypes recovered were phylogenetically affiliated with the large group of unclassified, uncultured Crenarcheota. Eukaryal phylotypes indicated that free-living ascomycetous fungi, chlorophytes and mosses (Bryum sp.) were all supported by these hypoliths, and these are thought to be responsible for the extensive eukaryotic biomass that develops around quartz rocks.

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Acknowledgments

This research was undertaken under the auspices of the South African national Antarctic Programme; the New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme under Antarctica New Zealand and the Waikato University Antarctic Terrestrial Biology Research Programme. The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Research Foundation (SA), the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (7733/08) and the NZ Ministry of Science and Innovation (Terrestrial Antarctic Biocomplexity Survey, nzTABS). The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Author notes

  1. Nuraan Khan

    Present address: Biocatalysis and Technical Biology Research Group, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Bellville, Cape Town, 7535, South Africa

  2. William Stafford

    Present address: Natural Resources and Environment, CSIR, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, Cape Town, 7535, South Africa

    Nuraan Khan, Marla Tuffin, William Stafford & Don Cowan

  2. Thermophile Research Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Craig Cary

  3. The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Donnabella C. Lacap & Stephen B. Pointing

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  1. Nuraan Khan
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Correspondence to Don Cowan.

Additional information

This article is an invited contribution on Global Tipping Points (Global Change and Antarctic Terrestrial Biodiversity) and part of the SCAR EBA programme. I. Hogg and D. Wall (Guest Editors).

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Khan, N., Tuffin, M., Stafford, W. et al. Hypolithic microbial communities of quartz rocks from Miers Valley, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Polar Biol 34, 1657–1668 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-011-1061-7

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