Novel cercozoan and heterolobosean protists from the rhizosphere and phyllosphere of two endemic cacti from the Atacama Desert

Acosta, Eduardo; Fincke, Victoria; Nitsche, Frank; Arndt, Hartmut

doi:10.1016/j.ejop.2023.126034

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Species of this genus are common inhabitants of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (Öztoprak et al, 2020). Although we cannot indicate the presence of this genotype as a species, we can trace our result to one cercozoan genus registered earlier as an arboretum inhabitant (Howe et al, 2011) and recently to a species member of the phyllosphere of endemic cacti in the Atacama (Acosta et al, 2023). This thecofilose amoeba, Rhogostoma, likely predates phototrophs as the diatoms (e.g., Amphora) are detected in parallel.…”

Section: Alpha Diversity and Taxonomy Of Protists Across Five Microbi...mentioning

confidence: 62%

“…), in saline microbial mats and hypersaline lagoons harboring biosignatures classified as diatoms, bicosoecids, and ciliates as detected by metabarcoding (Saghaï et al, 2017;Rybarski et al, 2023). Efforts to isolate and sequence the cultivable and uncultivable protist diversity from saline to hypersaline lagoons unveiled a novel endemic diversity including species from Opisthokonta (choanoflagellates), Rhizaria (Cercomonadida), Discoba (percolomonads), Stramenopiles (bicosoecids and placidids), and Alveolata (ciliates) (Schiwitza et al, 2018(Schiwitza et al, , 2019(Schiwitza et al, , 2021Arndt et al, 2020;Carduck et al, 2021;Rybarski et al, 2021Rybarski et al, , 2023Schoenle et al, 2022;Acosta et al, 2023;Hohlfeld et al, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Protist communities of microbial mats from the extreme environments of five saline Andean lagoons at high altitudes in the Atacama Desert

Acosta,

Nitsche,

Dorador

et al. 2024

Front. Microbiol.

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IntroductionHeterotrophic protists colonizing microbial mats have received little attention over the last few years, despite their importance in microbial food webs. A significant challenge originates from the fact that many protists remain uncultivable and their functions remain poorly understood.MethodsMetabarcoding studies of protists in microbial mats across high-altitude lagoons of different salinities (4.3–34 practical salinity units) were carried out to provide insights into their vertical stratification at the millimeter scale. DNA and cDNA were analyzed for selected stations.ResultsSequence variants classified as the amoeboid rhizarian Rhogostoma and the ciliate Euplotes were found to be common members of the heterotrophic protist communities. They were accompanied by diatoms and kinetoplastids. Correlation analyses point to the salinity of the water column as a main driver influencing the structure of the protist communities at the five studied microbial mats. The active part of the protist communities was detected to be higher at lower salinities (<20 practical salinity units).DiscussionWe found a restricted overlap of the protist community between the different microbial mats indicating the uniqueness of these different aquatic habitats. On the other hand, the dominating genotypes present in metabarcoding were similar and could be isolated and sequenced in comparative studies (Rhogostoma, Euplotes, Neobodo). Our results provide a snapshot of the unculturable protist diversity thriving the benthic zone of five athalossohaline lagoons across the Andean plateau.

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Section: Alpha Diversity and Taxonomy Of Protists Across Five Microbi...mentioning

confidence: 62%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protist communities of microbial mats from the extreme environments of five saline Andean lagoons at high altitudes in the Atacama Desert

Acosta,

Nitsche,

Dorador

et al. 2024

Front. Microbiol.

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Protist diversity and co-occurrence patterns obtained by metabarcoding of terricolous lichens, coastal cliffs and a microbial mat in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile

Acosta,

Nitsche,

Arndt

2024

European Journal of Protistology

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Hierarchical Patterns of Soil Biodiversity in the Atacama Desert: Insights Across Biological Scales

Villegas,

Pettrich,

Acevedo-Trejos

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Species diversity and distribution, in relation to how they interact with their environment has for long been a major focus of ecological research. Particularly for soil ecosystems, information about geographical patterns of biota is scarce despite the primordial role of soils as ecosystem service providers. The Atacama Desert, the driest non-polar desert on earth, where water is scarce, high salinity patches are frequent and high concentrations of metals are present in water bodies, only specialised taxa can survive. This desert supports some microbial life-forms, plant, vertebrates. Above ground invertebrates have also been reported to occur throughout its extension, but its soils have not been comprehensively analysed. By studying the Atacama as a system with different extreme habitats we aim to better understand and predict resilience of soil organisms in times of global aridification. Nematodes are one of the most important groups of soil organisms in terms of numbers and biodiversity. Here, we investigated diversity of soil nematodes at the genetic, taxonomic, community and life-cycle levels in the Atacama. We find distinct patterns in their assemblages along the different habitats in the desert: dune systems, high altitude mountains, saline lakes, river valleys and fog oases, characterizing some desert soil habitats as stable systems and others as disturbed. We also find that distribution of asexual taxa appears to be in the marginal ranges of high altitudes, and that the distribution of genera richness in the Atacama increases towards the south following a latitudinal diversity gradient, as well as with increasing precipitation. Our work shows that even under extreme environmental conditions healthy soil communities can persist, but we see indicatives of local degradation due to aridification during global change.

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Novel cercozoan and heterolobosean protists from the rhizosphere and phyllosphere of two endemic cacti from the Atacama Desert

Cited by 4 publications

References 42 publications

Protist communities of microbial mats from the extreme environments of five saline Andean lagoons at high altitudes in the Atacama Desert

Protist communities of microbial mats from the extreme environments of five saline Andean lagoons at high altitudes in the Atacama Desert

Protist diversity and co-occurrence patterns obtained by metabarcoding of terricolous lichens, coastal cliffs and a microbial mat in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile

Hierarchical Patterns of Soil Biodiversity in the Atacama Desert: Insights Across Biological Scales

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