Antarctica’s Deep Lake has been isolated from the ocean for 3,500 years. This unique saltwater ecosystem remains liquid in extreme cold and provides researchers a unique niche for studying the evolution of extremophiles. Deep Lake is dominated by haloarchaea, microbes that require high salt concentrations to grow and are naturally adapted to -20°C. In a detailed analysis published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers have, for the first time, been able to present Deep Lake’s microbial community ecology.
Deep Lake’s extreme environment has rendered the microbial community rather homogeneous, with 4 isolates in the study represented about 72% of the cells in the community. Though gene exchange (conjugation) across species boundaries is considered infrequent haloarchaea living in the Lake’s hypersaline environment perform it comparatively often. While gene exchange is rampant, species lineages appear to be maintained by virtue of each species having a high level of specialization, enabling resource partitioning and coexistence.
Deep Lake’s extreme environment has rendered the microbial community rather homogeneous, with 4 isolates in the study represented about 72% of the cells in the community. Though gene exchange (conjugation) across species boundaries is considered infrequent haloarchaea living in the Lake’s hypersaline environment perform it comparatively often. While gene exchange is rampant, species lineages appear to be maintained by virtue of each species having a high level of specialization, enabling resource partitioning and coexistence.
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