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Uncultured archaea dominate in the thermal groundwater of Uzon Caldera, Kamchatka

Extremophiles volume 15, pages 365–372 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

The thermoacidophilic microbial community inhabiting the groundwater with pH 4.0 and temperature 50°C at the East Thermal Field of Uzon Caldera, Kamchatka, was examined using pyrosequencing of the V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Bacteria comprise about 30% of microorganisms and are represented primarily by aerobic lithoautotrophs using the energy sources of volcanic origin—thermoacidophilic methanotrophs of the phylum Verrucomicrobia and Acidithiobacillus spp. oxidising metals and reduced sulfur compounds. More than 70% of microbial population in this habitat were represented by archaea, in majority affiliated with “uncultured” lineages. The most numerous group (39% of all archaea) represented a novel division in the phylum Euryarchaeota related to the order Thermoplasmatales. Another abundant group (33% of all archaea) was related to MCG1 lineage of the phylum Crenarchaeota, originally detected in the Yellowstone hot spring as the environmental clone pJP89. The organisms belonging to these two groups are widely spread in hydrothermal environments worldwide. These data indicate an important environmental role of these two archaeal groups and should stimulate the investigation of their metabolism by cultivation or metagenomic approaches.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 08-04-01273) and Ministry of education and sciences of Russia (state programme “Research and educational specialists of innovative Russia”, contract P1049). Work of E.B.-O. and A.P. was funded by the Programs of RAS “Molecular and Cell Biology” and “The Origin and Evolution of Biosphere”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre “Bioengineering”, Russian Academy of Sciences, Prosp. 60-let Oktyabrya, bld.7-1, Moscow, 117312, Russia

    Andrey V. Mardanov, Vadim M. Gumerov, Alexey V. Beletsky & Nikolai V. Ravin

  2. Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    Anna A. Perevalova & Elizaveta A. Bonch-Osmolovskaya

  3. Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia

    Gennady A. Karpov

Authors
  1. Andrey V. Mardanov
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  2. Vadim M. Gumerov
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  3. Alexey V. Beletsky
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  4. Anna A. Perevalova
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  5. Gennady A. Karpov
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  6. Elizaveta A. Bonch-Osmolovskaya
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  7. Nikolai V. Ravin
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Correspondence to Nikolai V. Ravin.

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Communicated by A. Oren.

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Mardanov, A.V., Gumerov, V.M., Beletsky, A.V. et al. Uncultured archaea dominate in the thermal groundwater of Uzon Caldera, Kamchatka. Extremophiles 15, 365–372 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-011-0368-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-011-0368-1

Keywords

  • Microbial community
  • Thermoacidophiles
  • Pyrosequencing
  • Thermal groundwater
  • Uncultured archaea
  • Uzon Caldera