부산대학교 도서관

Cyanobacterial components of microbialites from two geographically close systems, the Bacalar lagoon (BL) and the Cenote Azul sinkhole (CA) in Quintana Roo, Mexico, were characterized. BL and CA systems were studied along a longitudinal gradient (north to south) and a depth gradient (5-30 m), respectively. Microscopic observations, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, and shotgun metagenomics were used to characterize Cyanobacteria. Both systems showed similar metabolic/functional profiles but harbored completely different cyanobacterial taxa. BL was dominated by Nostocales, including a population of previously undescribed Chakia sp., while CA was dominated by an unknown taxon of Chroococcales, comprising 70% of relative abundance through all depths. Interestingly, cyanobacterial assemblages in microbialites exhibited phylogenetic overdispersion in most of the BL sites, while CA sites exhibited phylogenetic clustering, these differences were attributed to depth/light conditions and possibly different times of geological formation for BL and CA systems. Keywords: Cyanobacteria, functional redundancy, Bacalar, Cenote Azul, microbial ecology, microbialites, phylogenetic structure
Introduction Microbialites are organosedimentary structures where microbial communities favor the accretion, precipitation, and binding of minerals (Burne and Moore 1987, Riding 2011) Microbialites have also been defined as microbial mats [...]