ArticleFrontiers in microbiology2015
In situ metabolism in halite endolithic microbial communities of the hyperarid Atacama Desert.
Article in Frontiers in microbiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Microbial transcriptome patterns highlight increased pedogenesis-related activity in arid soils under simulated humid conditions.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- Effect of salinity on scytonemin yield in endolithic cyanobacteria from the Atacama Desert.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- With a pinch of salt: metagenomic insights into Namib Desert salt pan microbial mats and halites reveal functionally adapted and competitive communities.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Article
- The effect of the water source on niche partioning of chlorolichens and cyanobacteria-implications for resilience?Planta · 2023Article
- Adaptations of endolithic communities to abrupt environmental changes in a hyper-arid desert.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The Atacama Desert: A Biodiversity Hotspot and Not Just a Mineral-Rich Region.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Limitation of Microbial Processes at Saturation-Level Salinities in a Microbial Mat Covering a Coastal Salt Flat.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2021Article
- Microbial Hotspots in Lithic Microhabitats Inferred from DNA Fractionation and Metagenomics in the Atacama Desert.Microorganisms · 2021Article
- Metabolomics of Dry Versus Reanimated Antarctic Lichen-Dominated Endolithic Communities.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- UV-A Irradiation Increases Scytonemin Biosynthesis in Cyanobacteria Inhabiting Halites at Salar Grande, Atacama Desert.Microorganisms · 2020Article
- Metabolt: An In-Situ Instrument to Characterize the Metabolic Activity of Microbial Soil Ecosystems Using Electrochemical and Gaseous Signatures.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Regulatory Noncoding Small RNAs Are Diverse and Abundant in an Extremophilic Microbial Community.mSystems · 2020Article
- Environmental Factors Driving Spatial Heterogeneity in Desert Halophile Microbial Communities.Frontiers in microbiology · 2020Article
- Halophilic microbial community compositional shift after a rare rainfall in the Atacama Desert.The ISME journal · 2019Article
- Prokaryotic Community Structure and Metabolisms in Shallow Subsurface of Atacama Desert Playas and Alluvial Fans After Heavy Rains: Repairing and Preparing for Next Dry Period.Frontiers in microbiology · 2019Article
- Genomic Features for Desiccation Tolerance and Sugar Biosynthesis in the ExtremophileFrontiers in microbiology · 2019Article
- Biosignature Preservation and Detection in Mars Analog Environments.Astrobiology · 2017Review
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Atacama Desert of northern Chile is one of the driest regions on Earth, with areas that exclude plants and where soils have extremely low microbial biomass. However, in the driest parts of the desert there are microorganisms that colonize the interior of halite nodules in fossil continental evaporites, where they are sustained by condensation of atmospheric water triggered by the salt substrate. Using a combination of in situ observations of variable chlorophyll fluorescence and controlled laboratory experiments, we show that this endolithic community is capable of carbon fixation both through oxygenic photosynthesis and potentially ammonia oxidation. We also present evidence that photosynthetic activity is finely tuned to moisture availability and solar insolation and can be sustained for days, and perhaps longer, after a wetting event. This is the first demonstration of in situ active metabolism in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert, and it provides the basis for proposing a self-contained, endolithic community that relies exclusively on non-rainfall sources of water. Our results contribute to an increasing body of evidence that even in hyperarid environments active metabolism, adaptation, and growth can occur in highly specialized microhabitats.
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