Signatures of habitats and life in Earth's high-altitude lakes: clues to Noachian aqueous environments on Mars

Cabrol, Nathalie A.; McKay, C. P.; Grin, E. A.; Kiss, Keve Tihamér; Acs, E.; Tóth, Balint; Grigorszky, I.; Szabó, Katherine; Fike, David A.; Hock, Andrew N.; Demergasso, Cecilia; Escudero, Lorena; Galleguillos, P.; Chong, Guillermo; Grigsby, B.; Román, Jebner Zambrana; Tambley, Cristian

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511536014.015

Cited by 27 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…It is situated inside the crater of the Galán volcano near a hydrothermal spring effluent at an altitude of 4570 meters above sea level. Environmental conditions in the area are thought to resemble some of the conditions that prevailed on ancient Earth and on Mars in the past (Cabrol et al, 2007, Sforna et al, 2014. Diamante Lake and the surrounding area is a good model to look for clues about ancient life forms and studying adaptations that permit to survive in extreme environments and other planets.…”

Section: Haloarchaea Dominate Diamante Lake Biofilmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metagenomic study of red biofilms from Diamante Lake reveals ancient arsenic bioenergetics in haloarchaea

et al. 2015

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Arsenic metabolism is proposed to be an ancient mechanism in microbial life. Different bacteria and archaea use detoxification processes to grow under high arsenic concentration. Some of them are also able to use arsenic as a bioenergetic substrate in either anaerobic arsenate respiration or chemolithotrophic growth on arsenite. However, among the archaea, bioenergetic arsenic metabolism has only been found in the Crenarchaeota phylum. Here we report the discovery of haloarchaea (Euryarchaeota phylum) biofilms forming under the extreme environmental conditions such as high salinity, pH and arsenic concentration at 4589 m above sea level inside a volcano crater in Diamante Lake, Argentina. Metagenomic analyses revealed a surprisingly high abundance of genes used for arsenite oxidation (aioBA) and respiratory arsenate reduction (arrCBA) suggesting that these haloarchaea use arsenic compounds as bioenergetics substrates. We showed that several haloarchaea species, not only from this study, have all genes required for these bioenergetic processes. The phylogenetic analysis of aioA showed that haloarchaea sequences cluster in a novel and monophyletic group, suggesting that the origin of arsenic metabolism in haloarchaea is ancient. Our results also suggest that arsenite chemolithotrophy likely emerged within the archaeal lineage. Our results give a broad new perspective on the haloarchaea metabolism and shed light on the evolutionary history of arsenic bioenergetics.

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Section: Haloarchaea Dominate Diamante Lake Biofilmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metagenomic study of red biofilms from Diamante Lake reveals ancient arsenic bioenergetics in haloarchaea

et al. 2015

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“…These environmental conditions are considered to be extreme and might resemble those of the Earth’s early atmosphere, as has been stated by NASA (Cabrol et al, 2007; Farías et al, 2009). Hence, these geographical areas have been proposed for studies on astrobiology (Farías et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The genomic sequence ofExiguobacterium chiriqhuchastr. N139 reveals a species that thrives in cold waters and extreme environmental conditions

Gutiérrez-Preciado

Vargas-Chávez

Reyes-Prieto

et al. 2017

PeerJ

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We report the genome sequence of Exiguobacterium chiriqhucha str. N139, isolated from a high-altitude Andean lake. Comparative genomic analyses of the Exiguobacterium genomes available suggest that our strain belongs to the same species as the previously reported E. pavilionensis str. RW-2 and Exiguobacterium str. GIC 31. We describe this species and propose the chiriqhucha name to group them. ‘Chiri qhucha’ in Quechua means ‘cold lake’, which is a common origin of these three cosmopolitan Exiguobacteria. The 2,952,588-bp E. chiriqhucha str. N139 genome contains one chromosome and three megaplasmids. The genome analysis of the Andean strain suggests the presence of enzymes that confer E. chiriqhucha str. N139 the ability to grow under multiple environmental extreme conditions, including high concentrations of different metals, high ultraviolet B radiation, scavenging for phosphorous and coping with high salinity. Moreover, the regulation of its tryptophan biosynthesis suggests that novel pathways remain to be discovered, and that these pathways might be fundamental in the amino acid metabolism of the microbial community from Laguna Negra, Argentina.

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“…Even in zones of similar topography, such as the Altiplano shared by Peru, Bolivia and Chile, aquatic ecosystems can be quite disparate and may host contrasting microorganism assemblages (PatriCk 1961;MaNGuiN 1964;CruCes et al 2006;Cabrol et al 2007;among others). A characteristic region of the Bolivian central Altiplano is the area nearby the inactive Sajama volcano, which hosts a great variety of aquatic ecosystems ranging from wetlands to hypersaline lakes, among lentic habitats, and from small rivulets to wide shallow rivers among lotic environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) from the Bolivian Altiplano: three new araphid species from the Desaguadero River draining Lake Titicaca.

Morales¹,

Novais²,

Chávez³

et al. 2012

Fottea

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Abstract:Three new araphid diatom species, Pseudostaurosira decipiens e. Morales, G. Chávez et eCtor, P. sajamaensis e. Morales et eCtor and Staurosira kjotsunarum e. Morales, Novais et eCtor are described from a single sample taken from the Desaguadero River in the Bolivian Altiplano. These species clearly belong in their respective genera as evidenced by their morphological features studied using light (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Pseudostaurosira decipiens is unique in its genus because of the combination of lanceolate-shaped valves with central area, well-developed spines lacking ligulae, siliceous deposits on outer and inner areolar openings similar to flaps, and the inner rounded structure of the apical pore fields. Pseudostaurosira sajamaensis is different from other species of Pseudostaurosira due to its elliptic to lanceolate valves bearing a wide central sternum, spines with developed ligulae and bilobed flaps, robust volae and reduced or absent apical pore fields. Staurosira kjotsunarum is unique within Staurosira in having elevated costae on both external and internal views, narrowly spatulate spines that hold onto areolae of neighboring valves along a chain, and striae composed of round poroids underneath the apical pore fields on the valve mantle. The three species are compared with morphologically similar taxa and a brief analysis of the richness found in the studied sample in the context of previous publications on diatoms from the Andes and contiguous regions is presented.

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Signatures of habitats and life in Earth's high-altitude lakes: clues to Noachian aqueous environments on Mars

Cited by 27 publications

References 39 publications

Metagenomic study of red biofilms from Diamante Lake reveals ancient arsenic bioenergetics in haloarchaea

Metagenomic study of red biofilms from Diamante Lake reveals ancient arsenic bioenergetics in haloarchaea

The genomic sequence ofExiguobacterium chiriqhuchastr. N139 reveals a species that thrives in cold waters and extreme environmental conditions

Diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) from the Bolivian Altiplano: three new araphid species from the Desaguadero River draining Lake Titicaca.

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