ArticleNature2017
Atmospheric trace gases support primary production in Antarctic desert surface soil.
Article in Nature, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 159 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
159 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Atmospheric Microbial Transport to Antarctica and Its Ecological Implications: A Systematic Review.Environmental microbiology · 2026Pooled it
- Trace gas oxidation supports sub-surface microbial communities across Namib Desert fog and aridity gradients.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Widespread horizontal transfer and strong selection enhance microbial adaptation in Antarctic soils.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Chromid-like secondary replicons as predicted key sites of biosynthetic gene clusters inmSystems · 2026Article
- Change of the active bacteria mediating HCOiScience · 2026Article
- Diversity-driven biochemical survey reveals widespread dimerization throughout the rubisco superfamily.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Ghost-rocks' microbiota: metagenomic insights into their influence on the biogeochemistry of karstic cave and groundwater.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Article
- Metabolic transitions along a moisture gradient in a poly-extreme high-altitude desert ecosystem within the Atacama Desert.Environmental microbiome · 2026Article
- Contrasting nutrient retention in alpine soils: the role of soil microbiome in phosphorus and nitrogen mobility in scree and meadow environments.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Article
- Genomic evidence for aerotrophy as a defining trait of Ktedonobacteria inhabiting silica-rich oligotrophic caves.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Environmental distribution, physiology and genomic adaptations of arctic ammonia-oxidizing archaea.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Evidence for Trace Gas Metabolism and Widespread Antibiotic Synthesis in an Abiotically Driven, Antarctic Soil Ecosystem.Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Article
- Metabolically flexible microorganisms rapidly establish glacial foreland ecosystems.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Microbial aerotrophy enables continuous primary production in diverse cave ecosystems.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Draft genome sequence of an uncultured archaeon from Antarctic endolithic communities.Microbiology resource announcements · 2025Article
- ATP synthesis driven by atmospheric hydrogen concentrations.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Daily turnover of airborne bacterial communities in the sub-Antarctic.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- Quinone extraction drives atmospheric carbon monoxide oxidation in bacteria.Nature chemical biology · 2025Article
- Microbial transcriptome patterns highlight increased pedogenesis-related activity in arid soils under simulated humid conditions.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- The Ecological Restoration Strategies in Terrestrial Ecosystems Were Reviewed: A New Trend Based on Soil Microbiomics.Ecology and evolution · 2025Review
99 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cultivation-independent surveys have shown that the desert soils of Antarctica harbour surprisingly rich microbial communities. Given that phototroph abundance varies across these Antarctic soils, an enduring question is what supports life in those communities with low photosynthetic capacity. Here we provide evidence that atmospheric trace gases are the primary energy sources of two Antarctic surface soil communities. We reconstructed 23 draft genomes from metagenomic reads, including genomes from the candidate bacterial phyla WPS-2 and AD3. The dominant community members encoded and expressed high-affinity hydrogenases, carbon monoxide dehydrogenases, and a RuBisCO lineage known to support chemosynthetic carbon fixation. Soil microcosms aerobically scavenged atmospheric H
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.