| Title |
Haloarchaea from the Andean Puna: Biological Role in the Energy Metabolism of Arsenic
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Microbial Ecology, March 2018
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s00248-018-1159-3 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Omar Federico Ordoñez, María Cecilia Rasuk, Mariana Noelia Soria, Manuel Contreras, María Eugenia Farías |
| Abstract |
Biofilms, microbial mats, and microbialites dwell under highly limiting conditions (high salinity, extreme aridity, pH, and elevated arsenic concentration) in the Andean Puna. Only recent pioneering studies have described the microbial diversity of different Altiplano lakes and revealed their unexpectedly diverse microbial communities. Arsenic metabolism is proposed to be an ancient mechanism to obtain energy by microorganisms. Members of Bacteria and Archaea are able to exploit arsenic as a bioenergetic substrate in either anaerobic arsenate respiration or chemolithotrophic growth on arsenite. Only six aioAB sequences coding for arsenite oxidase and three arrA sequences coding for arsenate reductase from haloarchaea were previously deposited in the NCBI database. However, no experimental data on their expression and function has been reported. Recently, our working group revealed the prevalence of haloarchaea in a red biofilm from Diamante Lake and microbial mat from Tebenquiche Lake using a metagenomics approach. Also, a surprisingly high abundance of genes used for anaerobic arsenate respiration (arr) and arsenite oxidation (aio) was detected in the Diamante's metagenome. In order to study in depth the role of arsenic in these haloarchaeal communities, in this work, we obtained 18 haloarchaea belonging to the Halorubrum genus, tolerant to arsenic. Furthermore, the identification and expression analysis of genes involved in obtaining energy from arsenic compounds (aio and arr) showed that aio and arr partial genes were detected in 11 isolates, and their expression was verified in two selected strains. Better growth of two isolates was obtained in presence of arsenic compared to control. Moreover, one of the isolates was able to oxidize As[III]. The confirmation of the oxidation of arsenic and the transcriptional expression of these genes by RT-PCR strongly support the hypothesis that the arsenic can be used in bioenergetics processes by the microorganisms flourishing in these environments. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 8 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 1 | 13% |
| Spain | 1 | 13% |
| Australia | 1 | 13% |
| Netherlands | 1 | 13% |
| United States | 1 | 13% |
| Unknown | 3 | 38% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 5 | 63% |
| Scientists | 3 | 38% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 63 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 63 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Researcher | 12 | 19% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 10 | 16% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 10 | 16% |
| Student > Bachelor | 6 | 10% |
| Student > Master | 5 | 8% |
| Other | 5 | 8% |
| Unknown | 15 | 24% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 13 | 21% |
| Environmental Science | 9 | 14% |
| Earth and Planetary Sciences | 6 | 10% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 6 | 10% |
| Social Sciences | 3 | 5% |
| Other | 7 | 11% |
| Unknown | 19 | 30% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 11. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 03 November 2018.
All research outputs
#3,021,098
of 24,077,033 outputs
Outputs from Microbial Ecology
#212
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Outputs of similar age
#62,235
of 336,084 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Microbial Ecology
#13
of 42 outputs
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