Magalhães, C.M.* ; Machado, A.* ; Frank-Fahle, B. ; Lee, C.K.* ; Cary, S.C.*
     
    
        
The ecological dichotomy of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria in the hyper-arid soils of the Antarctic Dry Valleys.
    
    
        
    
    
        
        Front. Microbiol. 5:515 (2014)
    
    
    
      
      
	
	    The McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica are considered to be one of the most physically and chemically extreme terrestrial environments on the Earth. However, little is known about the organisms involved in nitrogen transformations in these environments. In this study, we investigated the diversity and abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) in four McMurdo Dry Valleys with highly variable soil geochemical properties and climatic conditions: Miers Valley, Upper Wright Valley, Beacon Valley and Battleship Promontory. The bacterial communities of these four Dry Valleys have been examined previously, and the results suggested that the extremely localized bacterial diversities are likely driven by the disparate physicochemical conditions associated with these locations. Here we showed that AOB and AOA amoA gene diversity was generally low; only four AOA and three AOB operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified from a total of 420 AOA and AOB amoA clones. Quantitative PCR analysis of amoA genes revealed clear differences in the relative abundances of AOA and AOB amoA genes among samples from the four dry valleys. Although AOB amoA gene dominated the ammonia-oxidizing community in soils from Miers Valley and Battleship Promontory, AOA amoA gene were more abundant in samples from Upper Wright and Beacon Valleys, where the environmental conditions are considerably harsher (e.g., extremely low soil C/N ratios and much higher soil electrical conductivity). Correlations between environmental variables and amoA genes copy numbers, as examined by redundancy analysis (RDA), revealed that higher AOA/AOB ratios were closely related to soils with high salts and Cu contents and low pH. Our findings hint at a dichotomized distribution of AOA and AOB within the Dry Valleys, potentially driven by environmental constraints.
	
	
	    
	
       
      
	
	    
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        Publication type
        Article: Journal article
    
 
    
        Document type
        Scientific Article
    
 
    
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        Keywords
        Aoa ; Aob ; Antarctica ; Dry Valleys ; Ammonia Oxidizers ; Archaea ; Bacteria; Gel-electrophoresis Analysis; 16s Ribosomal-rna; Mesophilic Crenarchaeota; Community Structure; Nitrifying Archaea; Victoria Land; Diversity; Abundance; Oxidation; Nitrogen
    
 
    
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        Language
        english
    
 
    
        Publication Year
        2014
    
 
    
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        HGF-reported in Year
        2014
    
 
    
    
        ISSN (print) / ISBN
        1664-302X
    
 
    
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        1664-302X
    
 
    
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	    Volume: 5,  
	    Issue: ,  
	    Pages: ,  
	    Article Number: 515 
	    Supplement: ,  
	
    
 
    
        
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            Publisher
            Frontiers
        
 
        
            Publishing Place
            Lausanne
        
 
	
        
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        Reviewing status
        Peer reviewed
    
 
     
    
        POF-Topic(s)
        20403 - Sustainable Water Management
    
 
    
        Research field(s)
        Environmental Sciences
    
 
    
        PSP Element(s)
        G-504300-005
    
 
    
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        Erfassungsdatum
        2014-10-19