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Characterizing Microbial Diversity and the Potential for Metabolic Function at −15 °C in the Basal Ice of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica

Measurement of gases entrapped in clean ice from basal portions of the Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, revealed that CO(2) ranged from 229 to 328 ppmv and O(2) was near 20% of the gas volume. In contrast, vertically adjacent sections of the sediment laden basal ice contained much higher concentrations o...

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Autores principales: Doyle, Shawn M., Montross, Scott N., Skidmore, Mark L., Christner, Brent C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3960875/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24833055
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology2031034
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author Doyle, Shawn M.
Montross, Scott N.
Skidmore, Mark L.
Christner, Brent C.
author_facet Doyle, Shawn M.
Montross, Scott N.
Skidmore, Mark L.
Christner, Brent C.
author_sort Doyle, Shawn M.
collection PubMed
description Measurement of gases entrapped in clean ice from basal portions of the Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, revealed that CO(2) ranged from 229 to 328 ppmv and O(2) was near 20% of the gas volume. In contrast, vertically adjacent sections of the sediment laden basal ice contained much higher concentrations of CO(2) (60,000 to 325,000 ppmv), whereas O(2) represented 4 to 18% of the total gas volume. The deviation in gas composition from atmospheric values occurred concurrently with increased microbial cell concentrations in the basal ice profile, suggesting that in situ microbial processes (i.e., aerobic respiration) may have altered the entrapped gas composition. Molecular characterization of 16S rRNA genes amplified from samples of the basal ice indicated a low diversity of bacteria, and most of the sequences characterized (87%) were affiliated with the phylum, Firmicutes. The most abundant phylotypes in libraries from ice horizons with elevated CO(2) and depleted O(2) concentrations were related to the genus Paenisporosarcina, and 28 isolates from this genus were obtained by enrichment culturing. Metabolic experiments with Paenisporosarcina sp. TG14 revealed its capacity to conduct macromolecular synthesis when frozen in water derived from melted basal ice samples and incubated at −15 °C. The results support the hypothesis that the basal ice of glaciers and ice sheets are cryospheric habitats harboring bacteria with the physiological capacity to remain metabolically active and biogeochemically cycle elements within the subglacial environment.
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spelling pubmed-39608752014-05-07 Characterizing Microbial Diversity and the Potential for Metabolic Function at −15 °C in the Basal Ice of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica Doyle, Shawn M. Montross, Scott N. Skidmore, Mark L. Christner, Brent C. Biology (Basel) Article Measurement of gases entrapped in clean ice from basal portions of the Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, revealed that CO(2) ranged from 229 to 328 ppmv and O(2) was near 20% of the gas volume. In contrast, vertically adjacent sections of the sediment laden basal ice contained much higher concentrations of CO(2) (60,000 to 325,000 ppmv), whereas O(2) represented 4 to 18% of the total gas volume. The deviation in gas composition from atmospheric values occurred concurrently with increased microbial cell concentrations in the basal ice profile, suggesting that in situ microbial processes (i.e., aerobic respiration) may have altered the entrapped gas composition. Molecular characterization of 16S rRNA genes amplified from samples of the basal ice indicated a low diversity of bacteria, and most of the sequences characterized (87%) were affiliated with the phylum, Firmicutes. The most abundant phylotypes in libraries from ice horizons with elevated CO(2) and depleted O(2) concentrations were related to the genus Paenisporosarcina, and 28 isolates from this genus were obtained by enrichment culturing. Metabolic experiments with Paenisporosarcina sp. TG14 revealed its capacity to conduct macromolecular synthesis when frozen in water derived from melted basal ice samples and incubated at −15 °C. The results support the hypothesis that the basal ice of glaciers and ice sheets are cryospheric habitats harboring bacteria with the physiological capacity to remain metabolically active and biogeochemically cycle elements within the subglacial environment. MDPI 2013-07-26 /pmc/articles/PMC3960875/ /pubmed/24833055 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology2031034 Text en © 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Doyle, Shawn M.
Montross, Scott N.
Skidmore, Mark L.
Christner, Brent C.
Characterizing Microbial Diversity and the Potential for Metabolic Function at −15 °C in the Basal Ice of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica
title Characterizing Microbial Diversity and the Potential for Metabolic Function at −15 °C in the Basal Ice of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica
title_full Characterizing Microbial Diversity and the Potential for Metabolic Function at −15 °C in the Basal Ice of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica
title_fullStr Characterizing Microbial Diversity and the Potential for Metabolic Function at −15 °C in the Basal Ice of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica
title_full_unstemmed Characterizing Microbial Diversity and the Potential for Metabolic Function at −15 °C in the Basal Ice of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica
title_short Characterizing Microbial Diversity and the Potential for Metabolic Function at −15 °C in the Basal Ice of Taylor Glacier, Antarctica
title_sort characterizing microbial diversity and the potential for metabolic function at −15 °c in the basal ice of taylor glacier, antarctica
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3960875/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24833055
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology2031034
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