Highly specialized microbial diversity in hyper-arid polar desert

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dc.contributor.authorPointing, Stephen B.
dc.contributor.authorChan, Yuki
dc.contributor.authorLacap, Donnabella C.
dc.contributor.authorLau, Maggie C.Y.
dc.contributor.authorJurgens, Joel Allan
dc.contributor.authorFarrell, Roberta L.
dc.date.accessioned2010-07-01T05:05:28Z
dc.date.available2010-07-01T05:05:28Z
dc.date.issued2009-11-24
dc.description.abstractThe McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica are a cold hyperarid polar desert that present extreme challenges to life. Here, we report a culture-independent survey of multidomain microbial biodiversity in McKelvey Valley, a pristine example of the coldest desert on Earth. We demonstrate that life has adapted to form highly-specialized communities in distinct lithic niches occurring concomitantly within this terrain. Endoliths and chasmoliths in sandstone displayed greatest diversity, whereas soil was relatively depauperate and lacked a significant photoautotrophic component, apart from isolated islands of hypolithic cyanobacterial colonization on quartz rocks in soil contact. Communities supported previously unreported polar bacteria and fungi, but archaea were absent from all niches. Lithic community structure did not vary significantly on a landscape scale and stochastic moisture input due to snowmelt resulted in increases in colonization frequency without significantly affecting diversity. The findings show that biodiversity near the cold-arid limit for life is more complex than previously appreciated, but communities lack variability probably due to the high selective pressures of this extreme environment.en_NZ
dc.identifier.citationPointing, S.B., Chan, Y., Lacap, D.C., Lau, M.C.Y., Jurgens, J.A. & Farrell, R.L. (2009). Highly specialized microbial diversity in hyper-arid polar desert. In T.K. Kirk (Ed.), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(47), 19964-19969.en_NZ
dc.identifier.doi10.1073/pnas.0908274106en_NZ
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10289/4073
dc.language.isoen
dc.relation.urihttp://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/10/21/0908274106.abstracten_NZ
dc.subjectAntarcticaen_NZ
dc.subjectbiodiversityen_NZ
dc.subjectendolithen_NZ
dc.subjectextremophileen_NZ
dc.subjecthypolithen_NZ
dc.titleHighly specialized microbial diversity in hyper-arid polar deserten_NZ
dc.typeJournal Articleen_NZ
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