caa a22 4500 445818328 CHVBK 20180317145235.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110101xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00792-010-0334-3 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00792-010-0334-3 Cyanobacteria and chloroflexi-dominated hypolithic colonization of quartz at the hyper-arid core of the Atacama Desert, Chile [Elektronische Daten] [Donnabella Lacap, Kimberley Warren-Rhodes, Christopher McKay, Stephen Pointing] Quartz stones are ubiquitous in deserts and are a substrate for hypoliths, microbial colonists of the underside of such stones. These hypoliths thrive where extreme temperature and moisture stress limit the occurrence of higher plant and animal life. Several studies have reported the occurrence of green hypolithic colonization dominated by cyanobacteria. Here, we describe a novel red hypolithic colonization from Yungay, at the hyper-arid core of the Atacama Desert in Chile. Comparative analysis of green and red hypoliths from this site revealed markedly different microbial community structure as revealed by 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. Green hypoliths were dominated by cyanobacteria (Chroococcidiopsis and Nostocales phylotypes), whilst the red hypolith was dominated by a taxonomically diverse group of chloroflexi. Heterotrophic phylotypes common to all hypoliths were affiliated largely to desiccation-tolerant taxa within the Actinobacteria and Deinococci. Alphaproteobacterial phylotypes that affiliated with nitrogen-fixing taxa were unique to green hypoliths, whilst Gemmatimonadetes phylotypes occurred only on red hypolithon. Other heterotrophic phyla recovered with very low frequency were assumed to represent functionally relatively unimportant taxa. The Author(s), 2010 Atacama nationallicence Chloroflexi nationallicence Chroococcidiopsis nationallicence Desert nationallicence Hyper-arid nationallicence Hypolith nationallicence Lacap Donnabella School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China aut Warren-Rhodes Kimberley NASA-Ames Research Center, Mail Stop 245-3, Moffett Field, 94035, Mountain View, CA, USA aut McKay Christopher NASA-Ames Research Center, Mail Stop 245-3, Moffett Field, 94035, Mountain View, CA, USA aut Pointing Stephen School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China aut Extremophiles Springer Japan 15/1(2011-01-01), 31-38 1431-0651 15:1<31 2011 15 792 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-010-0334-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-010-0334-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Lacap Donnabella School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Warren-Rhodes Kimberley NASA-Ames Research Center, Mail Stop 245-3, Moffett Field, 94035, Mountain View, CA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- McKay Christopher NASA-Ames Research Center, Mail Stop 245-3, Moffett Field, 94035, Mountain View, CA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Pointing Stephen School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Extremophiles Springer Japan 15/1(2011-01-01), 31-38 1431-0651 15:1<31 2011 15 792 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer