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The dark side of the moon: first insights into the microbiome structure and function of one of the last glacier-fed streams in Africa

The glaciers on Africa's ‘Mountains of the Moon' (Rwenzori National Park, Uganda) are predicted to disappear within the next decades owing to climate change. Consequently, the glacier-fed streams (GFSs) that drain them will vanish, along with their resident microbial communities. Despite t...

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Autores principales: Michoud, Grégoire, Kohler, Tyler J., Ezzat, Leïla, Peter, Hannes, Nattabi, Juliet Kigongo, Nalwanga, Rosemary, Pramateftaki, Paraskevi, Styllas, Michail, Tolosano, Matteo, De Staercke, Vincent, Schön, Martina, Marasco, Ramona, Daffonchio, Daniele, Bourquin, Massimo, Busi, Susheel Bhanu, Battin, Tom J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10410210/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37564072
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230329
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author Michoud, Grégoire
Kohler, Tyler J.
Ezzat, Leïla
Peter, Hannes
Nattabi, Juliet Kigongo
Nalwanga, Rosemary
Pramateftaki, Paraskevi
Styllas, Michail
Tolosano, Matteo
De Staercke, Vincent
Schön, Martina
Marasco, Ramona
Daffonchio, Daniele
Bourquin, Massimo
Busi, Susheel Bhanu
Battin, Tom J.
author_facet Michoud, Grégoire
Kohler, Tyler J.
Ezzat, Leïla
Peter, Hannes
Nattabi, Juliet Kigongo
Nalwanga, Rosemary
Pramateftaki, Paraskevi
Styllas, Michail
Tolosano, Matteo
De Staercke, Vincent
Schön, Martina
Marasco, Ramona
Daffonchio, Daniele
Bourquin, Massimo
Busi, Susheel Bhanu
Battin, Tom J.
author_sort Michoud, Grégoire
collection PubMed
description The glaciers on Africa's ‘Mountains of the Moon' (Rwenzori National Park, Uganda) are predicted to disappear within the next decades owing to climate change. Consequently, the glacier-fed streams (GFSs) that drain them will vanish, along with their resident microbial communities. Despite the relevance of microbial communities for performing ecosystem processes in equatorial GFSs, their ecology remains understudied. Here, we show that the benthic microbiome from the Mt. Stanley GFS is distinct at several levels from other GFSs. Specifically, several novel taxa were present, and usually common groups such as Chrysophytes and Polaromonas exhibited lower relative abundances compared to higher-latitude GFSs, while cyanobacteria and diatoms were more abundant. The rich primary producer community in this GFS likely results from the greater environmental stability of the Afrotropics, and accordingly, heterotrophic processes dominated in the bacterial community. Metagenomics revealed that almost all prokaryotes in the Mt. Stanley GFS are capable of organic carbon oxidation, while greater than 80% have the potential for fermentation and acetate oxidation. Our findings suggest a close coupling between photoautotrophs and other microbes in this GFS, and provide a glimpse into the future for high-latitude GFSs globally where primary production is projected to increase with ongoing glacier shrinkage.
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spelling pubmed-104102102023-08-10 The dark side of the moon: first insights into the microbiome structure and function of one of the last glacier-fed streams in Africa Michoud, Grégoire Kohler, Tyler J. Ezzat, Leïla Peter, Hannes Nattabi, Juliet Kigongo Nalwanga, Rosemary Pramateftaki, Paraskevi Styllas, Michail Tolosano, Matteo De Staercke, Vincent Schön, Martina Marasco, Ramona Daffonchio, Daniele Bourquin, Massimo Busi, Susheel Bhanu Battin, Tom J. R Soc Open Sci Ecology, Conservation and Global Change Biology The glaciers on Africa's ‘Mountains of the Moon' (Rwenzori National Park, Uganda) are predicted to disappear within the next decades owing to climate change. Consequently, the glacier-fed streams (GFSs) that drain them will vanish, along with their resident microbial communities. Despite the relevance of microbial communities for performing ecosystem processes in equatorial GFSs, their ecology remains understudied. Here, we show that the benthic microbiome from the Mt. Stanley GFS is distinct at several levels from other GFSs. Specifically, several novel taxa were present, and usually common groups such as Chrysophytes and Polaromonas exhibited lower relative abundances compared to higher-latitude GFSs, while cyanobacteria and diatoms were more abundant. The rich primary producer community in this GFS likely results from the greater environmental stability of the Afrotropics, and accordingly, heterotrophic processes dominated in the bacterial community. Metagenomics revealed that almost all prokaryotes in the Mt. Stanley GFS are capable of organic carbon oxidation, while greater than 80% have the potential for fermentation and acetate oxidation. Our findings suggest a close coupling between photoautotrophs and other microbes in this GFS, and provide a glimpse into the future for high-latitude GFSs globally where primary production is projected to increase with ongoing glacier shrinkage. The Royal Society 2023-08-09 /pmc/articles/PMC10410210/ /pubmed/37564072 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230329 Text en © 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Ecology, Conservation and Global Change Biology
Michoud, Grégoire
Kohler, Tyler J.
Ezzat, Leïla
Peter, Hannes
Nattabi, Juliet Kigongo
Nalwanga, Rosemary
Pramateftaki, Paraskevi
Styllas, Michail
Tolosano, Matteo
De Staercke, Vincent
Schön, Martina
Marasco, Ramona
Daffonchio, Daniele
Bourquin, Massimo
Busi, Susheel Bhanu
Battin, Tom J.
The dark side of the moon: first insights into the microbiome structure and function of one of the last glacier-fed streams in Africa
title The dark side of the moon: first insights into the microbiome structure and function of one of the last glacier-fed streams in Africa
title_full The dark side of the moon: first insights into the microbiome structure and function of one of the last glacier-fed streams in Africa
title_fullStr The dark side of the moon: first insights into the microbiome structure and function of one of the last glacier-fed streams in Africa
title_full_unstemmed The dark side of the moon: first insights into the microbiome structure and function of one of the last glacier-fed streams in Africa
title_short The dark side of the moon: first insights into the microbiome structure and function of one of the last glacier-fed streams in Africa
title_sort dark side of the moon: first insights into the microbiome structure and function of one of the last glacier-fed streams in africa
topic Ecology, Conservation and Global Change Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10410210/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37564072
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230329
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