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Glacial Ice Age Shapes Microbiome Composition in a Receding Southern European Glacier

Glaciers and their microbiomes are exceptional witnesses of the environmental conditions from remote times. Climate change is threatening mountain glaciers, and especially those found in southern Europe, such as the Monte Perdido Glacier (northern Spain, Central Pyrenees). This study focuses on the...

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Autores principales: Garcia-Lopez, Eva, Moreno, Ana, Bartolomé, Miguel, Leunda, Maria, Sancho, Carlos, Cid, Cristina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8636055/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34867842
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.714537
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author Garcia-Lopez, Eva
Moreno, Ana
Bartolomé, Miguel
Leunda, Maria
Sancho, Carlos
Cid, Cristina
author_facet Garcia-Lopez, Eva
Moreno, Ana
Bartolomé, Miguel
Leunda, Maria
Sancho, Carlos
Cid, Cristina
author_sort Garcia-Lopez, Eva
collection PubMed
description Glaciers and their microbiomes are exceptional witnesses of the environmental conditions from remote times. Climate change is threatening mountain glaciers, and especially those found in southern Europe, such as the Monte Perdido Glacier (northern Spain, Central Pyrenees). This study focuses on the reconstruction of the history of microbial communities over time. The microorganisms that inhabit the Monte Perdido Glacier were identified using high-throughput sequencing, and the microbial communities were compared along an altitudinal transect covering most of the preserved ice sequence in the glacier. The results showed that the glacial ice age gradient did shape the diversity of microbial populations, which presented large differences throughout the last 2000 years. Variations in microbial community diversity were influenced by glacial conditions over time (nutrient concentration, chemical composition, and ice age). Some groups were exclusively identified in the oldest samples as the bacterial phyla Fusobacteria and Calditrichaeota, or the eukaryotic class Rhodophyceae. Among groups only found in modern samples, the green sulfur bacteria (phylum Chlorobi) stood out, as well as the bacterial phylum Gemmatimonadetes and the eukaryotic class Tubulinea. A patent impact of human contamination was also observed on the glacier microbiome. The oldest samples, corresponding to the Roman Empire times, were influenced by the beginning of mining exploitation in the Pyrenean area, with the presence of metal-tolerant microorganisms. The most recent samples comprise 600-year-old ancient ice in which current communities are living.
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spelling pubmed-86360552021-12-02 Glacial Ice Age Shapes Microbiome Composition in a Receding Southern European Glacier Garcia-Lopez, Eva Moreno, Ana Bartolomé, Miguel Leunda, Maria Sancho, Carlos Cid, Cristina Front Microbiol Microbiology Glaciers and their microbiomes are exceptional witnesses of the environmental conditions from remote times. Climate change is threatening mountain glaciers, and especially those found in southern Europe, such as the Monte Perdido Glacier (northern Spain, Central Pyrenees). This study focuses on the reconstruction of the history of microbial communities over time. The microorganisms that inhabit the Monte Perdido Glacier were identified using high-throughput sequencing, and the microbial communities were compared along an altitudinal transect covering most of the preserved ice sequence in the glacier. The results showed that the glacial ice age gradient did shape the diversity of microbial populations, which presented large differences throughout the last 2000 years. Variations in microbial community diversity were influenced by glacial conditions over time (nutrient concentration, chemical composition, and ice age). Some groups were exclusively identified in the oldest samples as the bacterial phyla Fusobacteria and Calditrichaeota, or the eukaryotic class Rhodophyceae. Among groups only found in modern samples, the green sulfur bacteria (phylum Chlorobi) stood out, as well as the bacterial phylum Gemmatimonadetes and the eukaryotic class Tubulinea. A patent impact of human contamination was also observed on the glacier microbiome. The oldest samples, corresponding to the Roman Empire times, were influenced by the beginning of mining exploitation in the Pyrenean area, with the presence of metal-tolerant microorganisms. The most recent samples comprise 600-year-old ancient ice in which current communities are living. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-11-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8636055/ /pubmed/34867842 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.714537 Text en Copyright © 2021 Garcia-Lopez, Moreno, Bartolomé, Leunda, Sancho and Cid. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Garcia-Lopez, Eva
Moreno, Ana
Bartolomé, Miguel
Leunda, Maria
Sancho, Carlos
Cid, Cristina
Glacial Ice Age Shapes Microbiome Composition in a Receding Southern European Glacier
title Glacial Ice Age Shapes Microbiome Composition in a Receding Southern European Glacier
title_full Glacial Ice Age Shapes Microbiome Composition in a Receding Southern European Glacier
title_fullStr Glacial Ice Age Shapes Microbiome Composition in a Receding Southern European Glacier
title_full_unstemmed Glacial Ice Age Shapes Microbiome Composition in a Receding Southern European Glacier
title_short Glacial Ice Age Shapes Microbiome Composition in a Receding Southern European Glacier
title_sort glacial ice age shapes microbiome composition in a receding southern european glacier
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8636055/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34867842
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.714537
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