Mesocosms of Aquatic Bacterial Communities from the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (Mexico): A Tool to Test Bacterial Community Response to Environmental Stress

Pajares, Silvia; Bonilla-Rosso, Germán; Travisano, Michael; Eguiarte, Luis E.; Souza, Valeria

doi:10.1007/s00248-012-0045-7

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Communities deriving from "bacteria" and "bacteria + macroinvertebrates" treatments under different temperature regimes did not overlap in the ordination plot, thus suggesting that there might have been high species turnover with ecosystem warming. Similar results related to effects of climatic variability or environmental stressors on bacterial communities were found in marine and freshwater aquatic ecosystems (von Scheibner et al, 2014), such as rivers, marshes, lakes, and natural pools (Adams, Crump, & Kling, 2010;Duarte et al, 2016;Flury & Gessner, 2011;Pajares, Bonilla-Rosso, Travisano, Eguiarte, & Souza, 2012). Previous studies suggest that shifts in bacterial community structure due to warming might be explained by the appearance of new bacterial taxa deriving from other phylogenetic groups (von Scheibner et al, 2014) or by the increase in biomass of some bacteria due to the decline in others (Flury & Gessner, 2011;von Scheibner et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

Warming weakens facilitative interactions between decomposers and detritivores, and modifies freshwater ecosystem functioning

Bernabé

Omena

Santos

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

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Warming is among the major drivers of changes in biotic interactions and, in turn, ecosystem functioning. The decomposition process occurs in a chain of facilitative interactions between detritivores and microorganisms. It remains unclear, however, what effect warming may have on the interrelations between detritivores and microorganisms, and the consequences for the functioning of natural freshwater ecosystems. To address these gaps, we performed a field experiment using tank bromeliads and their associated aquatic fauna. We manipulated the presence of bacteria and detritivorous macroinvertebrates (control, "bacteria," and "bacteria + macroinvertebrates") under ambient and warming scenarios, and analyzed the effects on the microorganisms and ecosystem functioning (detritus mass loss, colored dissolved organic matter, and nitrogen flux). We applied antibiotic solution to eliminate or reduce bacteria from control bromeliads. After 60 days incubation, bacterial density was higher in the presence than in the absence of macroinvertebrates. In the absence of macroinvertebrates, temperature did not influence bacterial density. However, in the presence of macroinvertebrates, bacterial density decreased by 54% with warming. The magnitude of the effects of organisms on ecosystem functioning was higher in the combined presence of bacteria and macroinvertebrates. However, warming reduced the overall positive effects of detritivores on bacterial density, which in turn, cascaded down to ecosystem functioning by decreasing decomposition and nitrogen flux. These results show the existence of facilitative mechanisms between bacteria and detritivores in the decomposition process, which might collapse due to warming. Detritivores seem to contribute to nutrient cycling as they facilitate bacterial populations, probably by increasing nutrient input (feces) in the ecosystem. However, increased temperature mitigated these beneficial effects. Our results add to a growing research body that shows that warming can affect the structure of aquatic communities, and highlight the importance of considering the interactive effects between facilitation and climatic drivers on the functioning of freshwater ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

Warming weakens facilitative interactions between decomposers and detritivores, and modifies freshwater ecosystem functioning

Bernabé

Omena

Santos

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

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“…However, research papers about this genus are limited to its taxonomy and there are no reports about its biotechnological potential. Although the most abundant photosynthetic aquatic microorganisms reported in CCB are cyanobacteria and diatoms (Pajares et al, 2012;Winsborough, Theriot & Czarnecki, 2009), the Churince lagoon used to have several green microalgae, an unexplored group of organisms which, like the Chu2 strain (identified as Granulocystopsis sp. ), are adapted to live in oligotrophic conditions, possibly by modifying their metabolism and generating molecules with possible cytotoxic activity against fast-growing eukaryotic organisms in order to avoid competition and obtain phosphorous and nitrogen from the lysed cells in their surroundings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In vitro anticancer activity of methanolic extract of Granulocystopsis sp., a microalgae from an oligotrophic oasis in the Chihuahuan desert

Tavares-Carreón

Torre-Zavala

Arocha-Garza

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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With the purpose of discovering new anticancer molecules that might have fewer side effects or reduce resistance to current antitumor drugs, a bioprospecting study of the microalgae of the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (CCB), an oasis in the Chihuahuan desert in Mexico was conducted. A microalgae was identified as Granulocystopsis sp. through sequencing the rbcL gene and reconstruction of a phylogenetic tree, and its anticancer activities were assessed using various in vitro assays and different cell lines of human cancers, including lung, skin melanoma, colorectal, breast and prostatic cancers, as well as a normal cell line. The values of IC50 of the microalgae methanolic extract using the MTT assay were lower than 20 μg/ml, except that in the lung cancer line and the normal cell line. In vitro, the microalgae extract caused the loss of membrane integrity, monitored by the trypan blue exclusion test and exhibited marked inhibition of adhesion and cell proliferation in cancer cell lines, through the evaluation of the clonogenic assay. Also, typical nuclear changes of apoptotic processes were observed under the microscope, using the dual acridine orange/ethidium bromide fluorescent staining. Finally, the microalgae extract increased the activity of caspases 3 and 7 in skin melanoma, colon, breast and prostate cancer cells, in the same way as the apoptotic inductor and powerful antitumoral drug, doxorubicin. This study shows the anticancer activity from Granulocystopsis sp., a microalgae isolated from the CCB.

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“…1 ). These pools are oligotrophic springs with similar physico-chemical properties (neutral pH, oxygen-saturated, low nitrogen concentration and rich in calcium carbonates [ 31 ]); they sustain the growth of microbial mat communities at a nearly constant temperature all year long (CA. 30°C) due to a deep hydrothermal water source [ 27 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To study how these microbial ecosystems respond to long-term environmental changes, we can construct replicated experimental systems that enable us to recreate, in a simpler way, the natural habitat of the microbial mats while simultaneously allowing manipulation [ 31 ]. Such simplicity enables a high degree of experimental control and replicability to address many questions in the study of microbial community assembly that are difficult to reach through other kind of experiments or field observations [ 32 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multivariate and Phylogenetic Analyses Assessing the Response of Bacterial Mat Communities from an Ancient Oligotrophic Aquatic Ecosystem to Different Scenarios of Long-Term Environmental Disturbance

2015

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Understanding the response of bacterial communities to environmental change is extremely important in predicting the effect of biogeochemical modifications in ecosystem functioning. The Cuatro Cienegas Basin is an ancient oasis in the Mexican Chihuahuan desert that hosts a wide diversity of microbial mats and stromatolites that have survived in extremely oligotrophic pools with nearly constant conditions. However, thus far, the response of these unique microbial communities to long-term environmental disturbances remains unexplored. We therefore studied the compositional stability of these bacterial mat communities by using a replicated (3x) mesocosm experiment: a) Control; b) Fluct: fluctuating temperature; c) 40C: increase to 40 ºC; d) UVplus: artificial increase in UV radiation; and f) UVmin: UV radiation protection. In order to observe the changes in biodiversity, we obtained 16S rRNA gene clone libraries from microbial mats at the end of the experiment (eight months) and analyzed them using multivariate and phylogenetic tools. Sequences were assigned to 13 major lineages, among which Cyanobacteria (38.8%) and Alphaproteobacteria (25.5%) were the most abundant. The less extreme treatments (Control and UVmin) had a more similar composition and distribution of the phylogenetic groups with the natural pools than the most extreme treatments (Fluct, 40C, and UVplus), which showed drastic changes in the community composition and structure, indicating a different community response to each environmental disturbance. An increase in bacterial diversity was found in the UVmin treatment, suggesting that protected environments promote the establishment of complex bacterial communities, while stressful environments reduce diversity and increase the dominance of a few Cyanobacterial OTUs (mainly Leptolyngbya sp) through environmental filtering. Mesocosm experiments using complex bacterial communities, along with multivariate and phylogenetic analyses of molecular data, can assist in addressing questions about bacterial responses to long-term environmental stress.

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Mesocosms of Aquatic Bacterial Communities from the Cuatro Cienegas Basin (Mexico): A Tool to Test Bacterial Community Response to Environmental Stress

Cited by 17 publications

References 59 publications

Warming weakens facilitative interactions between decomposers and detritivores, and modifies freshwater ecosystem functioning

Warming weakens facilitative interactions between decomposers and detritivores, and modifies freshwater ecosystem functioning

In vitro anticancer activity of methanolic extract of Granulocystopsis sp., a microalgae from an oligotrophic oasis in the Chihuahuan desert

Multivariate and Phylogenetic Analyses Assessing the Response of Bacterial Mat Communities from an Ancient Oligotrophic Aquatic Ecosystem to Different Scenarios of Long-Term Environmental Disturbance

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