TEMPORAL PROFILING OF THE MICROBIAL COMMUNITY FROM THE LIME-TREATED ABANDONED MINE TAILING ?RELAVE VIEJO? IN NEUQUÉN, ARGENTINA.

FRANCISCO ISSOTTA ; PAULO COVARRUBIAS; RAQUEL QUATRINI; GRACIANA MOYA-BELTRÁN; ALEJANDRA GIAVENO ; RICARDO ULLOA ; HAROLD NUÑEZ

Montreal

Congreso; 16th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology 2016.; 2016

ISME

Relave Viejo is an abandoned mine tailing located in the Andacollo gold mining district (Neuquén, Argentina). This tailing stored the lime-treated left overs of gold concentrates processed in the site between 1976 and 1998. A microbiological survey performed between the years 2011 and 2015, using 16S rRNA gene-targeted deep sequencing, has revealed the presence of well established acidophilic microbial communities associated to the ore debris within the Relave Viejo tailing. Members of the genus Acidithiobacillus, reckoned to be a highly diverse group of acidogenic bacteria, were among the dominant taxa in these communities. Here, we present the microdiversity analysis of the population of Acidithiobacillus present in the site, based on metagenomic analysis.Two replicate metagenomes were obtained from a sample collected in 2014, using Illumina sequencing technology. Assembly was performed with Velvet 1.2.1. and downstream analysis was performed with MG-RAST. Presence and relative abundance of representatives of known species of the Acidithiobacillus genus was assessed on the basis of 16S rRNA and MLST read recruitment. Special focus was placed in the reconstruction of the genomes of most abundant Acidithiobacillus spp. Comparison to the type strains and other sequenced representatives of the genus using Bowtie2 allowed scoring of SNPs and identification of differential gene content. Findings are discussed in the light of the geochemical composition of the source ore and historical management of the site.Acknowledgements: PROBIEN (CONICET-UNCo), Corporación Minera del Neuquén S.E.P., Fondecyt 1140048, Conicyt Scholarships and UNAB Teaching assistant fellowship.