FORGED UNDER THE SUN: LIFE AND ART OF EXTREMOPHILES FROM ANDEAN LAKES

ALBARRACÍN V. H.; GÄRTNER W.; FARIAS M.E.

PHOTOCHEMISTRY AND PHOTOBIOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2016 p. 14 - 28

0031-8655

High Altitude Andean Lakes (HAAL) are a treasure chest for microbiological research inSouth-America. Their indigenous microbial communities are exposed to extremely high UVirradiation and to multiple chemical extremes (Arsenic, high salt content, alkalinity). Microbesare found both, free-living or associated into microbial mats with different degrees ofmineralization and lithification, including unique modern stromatolites located at 3,570 m abovesea level. Characterization of these poly-extremophilic microbes began only recently, employingmorphological and phylogenetic methods as well as high throughput sequencing and proteomicsapproach. Apart from providing a general overview on microbial communities, special attentionis given to various survival strategies; HAAL?s microbes present a complex system of sharedgenetic and physiological mechanisms (UV-resistome) based on UV-photoreceptors and stresssensors with their corresponding response-regulators, UV avoidance and protection strategies,damage tolerance, and UV-damage repair. Molecular information will be provided for what is,so far the most studied HAAL molecule, a CPD-Class I photolyase from Acinetobacter Ver3(Laguna Verde, 4,400 m). This work further proposes some strategies that make an appeal forthe preservation of HAAL highly, fragile environment that offers promising and ample researchpossibilities.