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An Updated View of the Microbial Diversity in Deep Hypersaline Anoxic Basins

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Adaption of Microbial Life to Environmental Extremes

Abstract

Deep hypersaline anoxic basins (DHABs) are marine extreme habitats, firstly discovered in the 1970s of the last century, located in several oceanographic regions, including the Mediterranean and Red Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. These basins are filled with brines that do not mix with the overlying seawater, due to a density difference. Brine and seawater result separated by a thick interface acting as a trap for particulate and cells. Some microbiological studies focused on seawater-brine interfaces of DHABs, showing that microbial populations are differentially distributed according to the gradient of salinity, oxygen, and nutrients occurring in such transition zones. Moreover, DHABs’ brines were intensively studied showing that specific bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic populations thrive there. In the last few years, cultivation and “omics”-based approaches have been used with samples collected from DHABs around the world, allowing clarifying metabolic processes of paramount ecological importance and pointing out the high biotechnological potential of the inhabiting extremophiles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS), University of Milan, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Francesca Mapelli, Elena Crotti, Sara Borin & Daniele Daffonchio

  2. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering Division (BESE), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Alan Barozzi, Grégoire Michoud, Giuseppe Merlino & Daniele Daffonchio

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  1. Francesca Mapelli
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  2. Alan Barozzi
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  3. Grégoire Michoud
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  4. Giuseppe Merlino
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  5. Elena Crotti
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  6. Sara Borin
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  7. Daniele Daffonchio
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Correspondence to Daniele Daffonchio .

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  1. FB Molekulare Biologie, Universität Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Helga Stan-Lotter

  2. Bioresource Centre & Advanced Research Association, Bucharest, Romania

    Sergiu Fendrihan

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Mapelli, F. et al. (2017). An Updated View of the Microbial Diversity in Deep Hypersaline Anoxic Basins. In: Stan-Lotter, H., Fendrihan, S. (eds) Adaption of Microbial Life to Environmental Extremes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48327-6_2

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