ArticleMicroorganisms2021
Microbial Hotspots in Lithic Microhabitats Inferred from DNA Fractionation and Metagenomics in the Atacama Desert.
Article in Microorganisms, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Radiation-Resistant Microbes: Pioneers for Life Beyond Earth.Current microbiology · 2026Review
- Metabolic transitions along a moisture gradient in a poly-extreme high-altitude desert ecosystem within the Atacama Desert.Environmental microbiome · 2026Article
- Microbial community structure and functional potential of tropical lithic habitats in northern Thailand.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Exploring organic compound preservation through long-term in situ experiments in the Atacama desert and the relevance for Mars.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Microbial transcriptome patterns highlight increased pedogenesis-related activity in arid soils under simulated humid conditions.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- From single pioneers to complex pro- and eukaryotic microbial networks in soils along a glacier forefield chronosequence in continental Antarctica.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Inside the Atacama Desert: uncovering the living microbiome of an extreme environment.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Persistent microbial communities in hyperarid subsurface habitats of the Atacama Desert: Insights from intracellular DNA analysis.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Microbial diversity in polyextreme salt flats and their potential applications.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2024Review
- Microbial impact on initial soil formation in arid and semiarid environments under simulated climate change.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Microbial colonization of gypsum: from the fossil record to the present day.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Review
- Article
- Capturing the microbial dark matter in desert soils using culturomics-based metagenomics and high-resolution analysis.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2023Article
- An improved method for intracellular DNA (iDNA) recovery from terrestrial environments.MicrobiologyOpen · 2023Article
- An Overview of Lipid Biomarkers in Terrestrial Extreme Environments with Relevance for Mars Exploration.Astrobiology · 2023Review
- Impact of Climate and Slope Aspects on the Composition of Soil Bacterial Communities Involved in Pedogenetic Processes along the Chilean Coastal Cordillera.Microorganisms · 2022Article
- Evaluation of Genomic Sequence-Based Growth Rate Methods for SynchronizedApplied and environmental microbiology · 2022Article
- Influence of Physical-Chemical Soil Parameters on Microbiota Composition and Diversity in a Deep Hyperarid Core of the Atacama Desert.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
25 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The existence of microbial activity hotspots in temperate regions of Earth is driven by soil heterogeneities, especially the temporal and spatial availability of nutrients. Here we investigate whether microbial activity hotspots also exist in lithic microhabitats in one of the most arid regions of the world, the Atacama Desert in Chile. While previous studies evaluated the total DNA fraction to elucidate the microbial communities, we here for the first time use a DNA separation approach on lithic microhabitats, together with metagenomics and other analysis methods (i.e., ATP, PLFA, and metabolite analysis) to specifically gain insights on the living and potentially active microbial community. Our results show that hypolith colonized rocks are microbial hotspots in the desert environment. In contrast, our data do not support such a conclusion for gypsum crust and salt rock environments, because only limited microbial activity could be observed. The hypolith community is dominated by phototrophs, mostly Cyanobacteria and Chloroflexi, at both study sites. The gypsum crusts are dominated by methylotrophs and heterotrophic phototrophs, mostly Chloroflexi, and the salt rocks (halite nodules) by phototrophic and halotolerant endoliths, mostly Cyanobacteria and Archaea. The major environmental constraints in the organic-poor arid and hyperarid Atacama Desert are water availability and UV irradiation, allowing phototrophs and other extremophiles to play a key role in desert ecology.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.