Abstract
Laguna Tebenquiche is one of the largest waterbodies in the Salar de Atacama. The prokaryotic microorganisms inhabiting this lake are subjected to extreme conditions such as high solar radiation due to a lower barometric pressure at high altitude, extreme daily temperature fluctuations, severe changes in salinity caused by net evaporation, and high arsenic concentrations in the water owing to volcanic events. The microbial community of Laguna Tebenquiche was studied using culture-dependent and culture-independent molecular methods and more recently, metagenomic analyses. These multifarious approaches allowed determination of the prokaryotic diversity in the various microbial ecosystems comprising Laguna Tebenquiche. Here, we describe the main results from the different approaches/analyses, the most relevant results for understanding the ecology of this extreme environment, and discuss future perspectives for diversity/microbial ecological studies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alonso H, Risacher F (1996) Geoquímica del Salar de Atacama, parte 1: origen de los componentes y balance salino. Andean Geol 23:123–134
Amann RI, Ludwig W, Schleifer KH (1995) Phylogenetic identification and in situ detection of individual microbial cells without cultivation. Microbiol Rev 59:143–169
Baumgartner LK, Spear JR, Buckley DH et al (2009) Microbial diversity in modern marine stromatolites, Highborne Cay, Bahamas. Environ Microbiol 11:2710–2719. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1462-2920.2009.01998.x
Bowman JP, McCammon SA, Lewis T et al (1998) Psychroflexus torquis gen. nov., sp. nov. a psychrophilic species from Antarctic sea ice, and reclassification of Flavobacterium gondwanense (Dobson et al. 1993) as Psychroflexus gondwanense gen. nov., comb. nov. Microbiology 144:1601–1609. https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-144-6-1601
Bowman JP, McCammon SA, Rea SM, McMeekin TA (2000) The microbial composition of three limnologically disparate hypersaline Antarctic lakes. FEMS Microbiol Lett 183:81–88
Buckley DH, Baumgartner LK, Visscher PT (2008) Vertical distribution of methane metabolism in microbial mats of the Great Sippewissett Salt Marsh. Environ Microbiol 10:967–977. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1462-2920.2007.01517.x
Casamayor EO, Calderón-Paz JI, Pedrós-Alió C (2000) 5S rRNA fingerprints of marine bacteria, halophilic archaea and natural prokaryotic assemblages along a salinity gradient. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 34:113–119
Casamayor EO, Massana R, Benlloch S et al (2002) Changes in archaeal, bacterial and eukaryal assemblages along a salinity gradient by comparison of genetic fingerprinting methods in a multipond solar saltern. Environ Microbiol 4:338–348
Demergasso C, Casamayor EO, Chong G et al (2004) Distribution of prokaryotic genetic diversity in athalassohaline lakes of the Atacama Desert, Northern Chile. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 48:57–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.femsec.2003.12.013
Demergasso C, Escudero L, Casamayor EO et al (2008) Novelty and spatio-temporal heterogeneity in the bacterial diversity of hypersaline Lake Tebenquiche (Salar de Atacama). Extremophiles 12:491–504. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-008-0153-y
Dong H, Zhang G, Jiang H et al (2006) Microbial diversity in sediments of saline Qinghai Lake, China: linking geochemical controls to microbial ecology. Microb Ecol 51:65–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-005-0228-6
Dorador C (2007) Microbial communities in high altitude altiplanic wetlands in northern Chile: phytogeny, diversity and function. Christian-Albrechts-Universitat, Kiel, Germany
Dorador C, Meneses D, Urtuvia V et al (2009) Diversity of Bacteroidetes in high-altitude saline evaporitic basins in northern Chile. J Geophys Res Biogeosci 114:35–44. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JG000837
Dupraz C, Reid RP, Braissant O et al (2009) Processes of carbonate precipitation in modern microbial mats. Earth Sci Rev 96:141–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2008.10.005
Dupraz C, Visscher PT (2005) Microbial lithification in marine stromatolites and hypersaline mats. Trends Microbiol 13:429–438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2005.07.008
Dupraz C, Visscher PT, Baumgartner LK, Reid RP (2004) Microbe-mineral interactions: early carbonate precipitation in a hypersaline lake (Eleuthera Island, Bahamas). Sedimentology 51:745–765. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3091.2004.00649.x
Espejo RT, Feijoo CJ, Romero J, Vasquez M (1998) PAGE separation of the heteroduplex formed between PCR amplified 16S ribosomal RNA genes allows estimation of phylogenetic relatedness between isolates and assessment of bacterial diversity. Microbiology 144:1611–1617
Farías ME, Contreras M, Rasuk MC et al (2014) Characterization of bacterial diversity associated with microbial mats, gypsum evaporites and carbonate microbialites in thalassic wetlands: Tebenquiche and La Brava, Salar de Atacama, Chile. Extremophiles 18:311–329. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-013-0617-6
Fernandez AB, Rasuk MC, Visscher PT et al (2016) Microbial diversity in sediment ecosystems (evaporites domes, microbial Mats, and crusts) of Hypersaline Laguna Tebenquiche, Salar de Atacama, Chile. Front Microbiol 7:1284. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01284
Handelsman J, Liles M, Mann D et al (2002) Cloning the metagenome: culture-independent access to the diversity and functions of the uncultivated microbial world. Methods Microbiol 33:241–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0580-9517(02)33014-9
Handelsman J, Rondon MR, Brady SF et al (1998) Molecular biological access to the chemistry of unknown soil microbes: a new frontier for natural products. Chem Biol 5:R245–R249
Humayoun SB, Bano N, Hollibaugh JT (2003) Depth distribution of microbial diversity in Mono Lake, a meromictic soda lake in California. Appl Environ Microbiol 69:1030–1042
Hutchinson GE (1957) A treatise on limnology. Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York
Jiang H, Dong H, Zhang G et al (2006) Microbial diversity in water and sediment of Lake Chaka, an athalassohaline lake in northwestern China. Appl Environ Microbiol 72:3832–3845. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.02869-05
Kharroub K, Lizama C, Aguilera M et al (2008) Halomicrobium katesii sp. nov., an extremely halophilic archaeon. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 58:2354–2358. https://doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.65662-0
Kirchman DL (2002) The ecology of Cytophaga-Flavobacteria in aquatic environments. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 39:91–100. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6941.2002.tb00910.x
Kushner DJ, Kamekura M (1988) Physiology of halophilic eubacteria. In: Rodríguez-Valera F (ed) Halophilic bacteria. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 109–138
Lara J, Escudero González L, Ferrero M et al (2012) Enrichment of arsenic transforming and resistant heterotrophic bacteria from sediments of two salt lakes in Northern Chile. Extremophiles 16:523–538. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-012-0452-1
Liu Y, Yao T, Jiao N et al (2006) Microbial community structure in moraine lakes and glacial meltwaters, Mount Everest. FEMS Microbiol Lett 265:98–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6968.2006.00477.x
Lizama C, Monteoliva-Sánchez M, Prado B et al (2001) Taxonomic study of extreme halophilic archaea isolated from the “Salar de Atacama”, Chile. Syst Appl Microbiol 24:464–474. https://doi.org/10.1078/0723-2020-00053
Lizama C, Monteoliva-Sánchez M, Suárez-García A et al (2002) Halorubrum tebenquichense sp. nov., a novel halophilic archaeon isolated from the Atacama Saltern, Chile. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 52:149–155
Maldonado J (2015) Biodiversidad de arqueas en ambientes extremos de los andes. In: Sistemas de resistencia al estrés. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Tucumán
Nelson WC, Stegen JC (2015) The reduced genomes of Parcubacteria (OD1) contain signatures of a symbiotic lifestyle. Front Microbiol 6:713. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00713
Nübel U, Engelen B, Felske A et al (1996) Sequence heterogeneities of genes encoding 16S rRNAs in Paenibacillus polymyxa detected by temperature gradient gel electrophoresis. J Bacteriol 178:5636–5643
Ordoñez OF, Rasuk MC, Soria MN et al (2018) Haloarchaea from the Andean Puna: biological role in the energy metabolism of arsenic. Microb Ecol 76:695–705. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-018-1159-3
Prado B, del Moral A, Campos V (1993) Distribution and types of Heterotrophyc Halophilic Flora from Salar de Atacama, Chile. Toxicol Environ Chem 38:163–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/02772249309357887
Prado B, Del Moral A, Quesada E et al (1991) Numerical taxonomy of moderately halophilic Gram-negative rods isolated from the Salar de Atacama, Chile. Syst Appl Microbiol 14:275–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0723-2020(11)80381-4
Prado B, Lizama C, Aguilera M et al (2006) Chromohalobacter nigrandesensis sp. nov., a moderately halophilic, Gram-negative bacterium isolated from Lake Tebenquiche on the Atacama Saltern, Chile. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 56:647–651. https://doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.63983-0
Rappé MS, Giovannoni SJ (2003) The uncultured microbial majority. Annu Rev Microbiol 57:369–394. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.micro.57.030502.090759
Rascovan N, Maldonado J, Vazquez MP, Eugenia Farías M (2016) Metagenomic study of red biofilms from Diamante Lake reveals ancient arsenic bioenergetics in haloarchaea. ISME J 10:299–309. https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2015.109
Riesenfeld CS, Schloss PD, Handelsman J (2004) Metagenomics: genomic analysis of microbial communities. Annu Rev Genet 38:525–552. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.genet.38.072902.091216
Risacher F, Alonso H, Salazar C (2003) The origin of brines and salts in Chilean salars: a hydrochemical review. Earth Sci Rev 63:249–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-8252(03)00037-0
Rodríguez-Valera F (1988) Characteristics and microbial ecology of hypersaline environments. In: Rodríguez-Valera F (ed) Halophilic bacteria. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 3–30
Rothschild LJ, Giver LJ, White MR, Mancinelli RL (1994) Metabolic activity of microorganisms in evaporites. J Phycol 30:431–438
Rothschild LJ, Mancinelli RL (2001) Life in extreme environments. Nature 409:1092–1101. https://doi.org/10.1038/35059215
Sørensen KB, Canfield DE, Teske AP, Oren A (2005) Community composition of a hypersaline endoevaporitic microbial mat. Appl Environ Microbiol 71:7352–7365. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.71.11.7352-7365.2005
Stewart EJ (2012) Growing unculturable bacteria. J Bacteriol 194:4151–4160. https://doi.org/10.1128/JB.00345-12
Thiel V, Tank M, Neulinger SC et al (2010) Unique communities of anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria in saline lakes of Salar de Atacama (Chile): evidence for a new phylogenetic lineage of phototrophic Gammaproteobacteria from pufLM gene analyses. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 74:510–522. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6941.2010.00966.x
Valderrama MJ, Prado B, del Moral A et al (1991) Numerical taxonomy of moderately halophilic gram-positive cocci isolated from the Salar de Atacama (Chile). Microbiologia 7:35–41
Van Gemerden H (1993) Microbial mats: a joint venture. Mar Geol 113:3–25
Visscher PT, Beukema J, Van Gemerden H (1991) In situ characterization of sediments: measurements of oxygen and sulfide profiles with a novel combined needle electrode. Limnol Oceanogr 36:1476–1480. https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.1991.36.7.1476
Visscher PT, Prins RA, Gemerden H (1992) Rates of sulfate reduction and thiosulfate consumption in a marine microbial mat. FEMS Microbiol Lett 86:283–294. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6968.1992.tb04820.x
Visscher PT, Reid RP, Bebout BM et al (1998) Formation of lithified micritic laminae in modern marine stromatolites (Bahamas); the role of sulfur cycling. Am Mineral 83:1482–1493
Visscher PT, van Gemerden H (1991) Production and consumption of dimethylsulfoniopropionate in marine microbial mats. Appl Environ Microbiol 57:3237–3242
von Wintzingerode F, Göbel UB, Stackebrandt E (1997) Determination of microbial diversity in environmental samples: pitfalls of PCR-based rRNA analysis. FEMS Microbiol Rev 21:213–229
Wu QL, Zwart G, Schauer M et al (2006) Bacterioplankton community composition along a salinity gradient of sixteen high-mountain lakes located on the Tibetan Plateau, China. Appl Environ Microbiol 72:5478–5485. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.00767-06
Zhang G, Niu F, Ma X et al (2007) Phylogenetic diversity of bacteria isolates from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau permafrost region. Can J Microbiol 53:1000–1010. https://doi.org/10.1139/W07-031
Zúñiga LR, Campos V, Pinochet H, Prado B (1991) A limnological reconnaissance of Lake Tebenquiche, Salar de Atacama, Chile. Hydrobiologia 210:19–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00014320
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fernández, A.B., Visscher, P.T., Rasuk, M.C., Contreras Leiva, M., Farías, M.E. (2020). Prokaryotic Diversity at the Hypersaline Laguna Tebenquiche in the Salar de Atacama, Chile. In: Farías, M. (eds) Microbial Ecosystems in Central Andes Extreme Environments. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36192-1_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36192-1_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-36191-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-36192-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)