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Metataxonomic Analysis of Bacteria Entrapped in a Stalactite’s Core and Their Possible Environmental Origins

Much is known about microbes originally identified in caves, but little is known about the entrapment of microbes (bacteria) in stalactites and their possible environmental origins. This study presents data regarding the significant environmental distribution of prokaryotic bacterial taxa of a Greek...

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Autores principales: Michail, George, Karapetsi, Lefkothea, Madesis, Panagiotis, Reizopoulou, Angeliki, Vagelas, Ioannis
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8705861/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34946013
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9122411
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author Michail, George
Karapetsi, Lefkothea
Madesis, Panagiotis
Reizopoulou, Angeliki
Vagelas, Ioannis
author_facet Michail, George
Karapetsi, Lefkothea
Madesis, Panagiotis
Reizopoulou, Angeliki
Vagelas, Ioannis
author_sort Michail, George
collection PubMed
description Much is known about microbes originally identified in caves, but little is known about the entrapment of microbes (bacteria) in stalactites and their possible environmental origins. This study presents data regarding the significant environmental distribution of prokaryotic bacterial taxa of a Greek stalactite core. We investigated the involvement of those bacteria communities in stalactites using a metataxonomic analysis approach of partial 16S rRNA genes. The metataxonomic analysis of stalactite core material revealed an exceptionally broad ecological spectrum of bacteria classified as members of Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia, and other unclassified bacteria. We concluded that (i) the bacterial transport process is possible through water movement from the upper ground cave environment, forming cave speleothems such as stalactites, (ii) bacterial genera such as Polaromonas, Thioprofundum, and phylum Verrucomicrobia trapped inside the stalactite support the paleoecology, paleomicrobiology, and paleoclimate variations, (iii) the entrapment of certain bacteria taxa associated with water, soil, animals, and plants such as Micrococcales, Propionibacteriales, Acidimicrobiales, Pseudonocardiales, and α-, β-, and γ-Proteobacteria.
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spelling pubmed-87058612021-12-25 Metataxonomic Analysis of Bacteria Entrapped in a Stalactite’s Core and Their Possible Environmental Origins Michail, George Karapetsi, Lefkothea Madesis, Panagiotis Reizopoulou, Angeliki Vagelas, Ioannis Microorganisms Article Much is known about microbes originally identified in caves, but little is known about the entrapment of microbes (bacteria) in stalactites and their possible environmental origins. This study presents data regarding the significant environmental distribution of prokaryotic bacterial taxa of a Greek stalactite core. We investigated the involvement of those bacteria communities in stalactites using a metataxonomic analysis approach of partial 16S rRNA genes. The metataxonomic analysis of stalactite core material revealed an exceptionally broad ecological spectrum of bacteria classified as members of Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia, and other unclassified bacteria. We concluded that (i) the bacterial transport process is possible through water movement from the upper ground cave environment, forming cave speleothems such as stalactites, (ii) bacterial genera such as Polaromonas, Thioprofundum, and phylum Verrucomicrobia trapped inside the stalactite support the paleoecology, paleomicrobiology, and paleoclimate variations, (iii) the entrapment of certain bacteria taxa associated with water, soil, animals, and plants such as Micrococcales, Propionibacteriales, Acidimicrobiales, Pseudonocardiales, and α-, β-, and γ-Proteobacteria. MDPI 2021-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8705861/ /pubmed/34946013 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9122411 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Michail, George
Karapetsi, Lefkothea
Madesis, Panagiotis
Reizopoulou, Angeliki
Vagelas, Ioannis
Metataxonomic Analysis of Bacteria Entrapped in a Stalactite’s Core and Their Possible Environmental Origins
title Metataxonomic Analysis of Bacteria Entrapped in a Stalactite’s Core and Their Possible Environmental Origins
title_full Metataxonomic Analysis of Bacteria Entrapped in a Stalactite’s Core and Their Possible Environmental Origins
title_fullStr Metataxonomic Analysis of Bacteria Entrapped in a Stalactite’s Core and Their Possible Environmental Origins
title_full_unstemmed Metataxonomic Analysis of Bacteria Entrapped in a Stalactite’s Core and Their Possible Environmental Origins
title_short Metataxonomic Analysis of Bacteria Entrapped in a Stalactite’s Core and Their Possible Environmental Origins
title_sort metataxonomic analysis of bacteria entrapped in a stalactite’s core and their possible environmental origins
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8705861/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34946013
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9122411
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