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    STUDIA BIOLOGIA - Issue no. 1 / 2019  
         
  Article:   ANTARCTIC HYPERSALINE COMMUNITIES – ENVIRONMENTAL OMICS AND LABORATORY STUDIES.

Authors:  RICARDO CAVICCHIOLI.
 
       
         
  Abstract:  Antarctic lakes are a treasure trove for the discovery of microbes with previously unknown properties. Marine-derived, hypersaline systems, including the coldest natural environment on Earth known to support life, are present in the Vestfold Hills and Rauer Islands regions of East Antarctica (near the Australian research station, Davis). The lakes support diverse archaea and viruses. In this talk I will describe hypothesis-based and serendipitous discoveries involving synergies realized through field and laboratory research. Environmental omic approaches (metagenomics and metaproteomics) have been instrumental in learning about the ecology (e.g. community structure, interactions) and evolution (e.g. gene transfer, niche adaptation) of communities, with laboratory cultivation and manipulation of lake isolates enabling targeted assessments of physiology, metabolism and interactions (cell-cell and cell-virus). Laboratory experimentation using field samples has also proved lucrative for discovering unexpected mobile genetic elements and cellular interactions, with ecological relevance of the discoveries being realized through further interrogation of environmental omic data. By studying Antarctic hypersaline communities we complement research efforts of lower-latitudinal environments, thereby expanding understanding of endemism, biogeography and the global halophile pan-genome.

Keywords: archaeal evolution, ecophysiological adaptation, gene exchange, haloarchaea, halovirus.
 
         
     
         
         
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