title: New abundant microbial groups in aquatic hypersaline environments.
abstract: We describe the microbiota of two hypersaline saltern ponds, one of intermediate salinity (19%) and a NaCl saturated crystallizer pond (37%) using pyrosequencing. The analyses of these metagenomes (nearly 784 Mb) reaffirmed the vast dominance of Haloquadratum walsbyi but also revealed novel, abundant and previously unsuspected microbial groups. We describe for the first time, a group of low GC Actinobacteria, related to freshwater Actinobacteria, abundant in low and intermediate salinities. Metagenomic assembly revealed three new abundant microbes: a low-GC euryarchaeon with the lowest GC content described for any euryarchaeon, a high-GC euryarchaeon and a gammaproteobacterium related to Alkalilimnicola and Nitrococcus. Multiple displacement amplification and sequencing of the genome from a single archaeal cell of the new low GC euryarchaeon suggest a photoheterotrophic and polysaccharide-degrading lifestyle and its relatedness to the recently described lineage of Nanohaloarchaea. These discoveries reveal the combined power of an unbiased metagenomic and single cell genomic approach.
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Genomics Group, Departamento de Producción Vegetal y Microbiología, Universidad Miguel Hernádez, San Juan de Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
authors.forename: Rohit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ghai
authors.forename: Lejla
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pašić
authors.forename: Ana Beatriz
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Ana-Belen
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Martin-Cuadrado
authors.forename: Carolina Megumi
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.forename: Katherine D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: McMahon
authors.forename: R Thane
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Papke
authors.forename: Ramunas
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stepanauskas
authors.forename: Beltran
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rodriguez-Brito
authors.forename: Forest
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rohwer
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Porro
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ventosa
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Valera
mesh_terms: D039903:Actinobacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001482:Base Composition; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D019605:Euryarchaeota / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020563:Gammaproteobacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007526:Isoelectric Point; D054892:Metagenome; D010802:Phylogeny; D040081:Protein Array Analysis; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D054712:Salinity; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology*; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S