Gourgouthakas Cave Isolates
Here, we characterize the cultivated microbial strains of Gourgouthakas Cave (Lefka Ori, Crete, Greece) at a depth of 1100 m, currently the deepest of Greece and ranked 78th worldwide. During the “Gourgouthakas 2022” expedition, nine samples were collected along the cave's depth, yielding in total 820 bacterial isolates. Of these, more than 360 strains have been taxonomically identified using the full 16s rRNA gene. Pseudomonas was the most prevalent genus (156 isolates), peaking at -900 m depth, followed by Bacillus (57), particularly abundant in deeper zones. Other genera included Stenotrophomonas, Paenibacillus, and Brevibacillus. Diversity increased with depth, highlighting microbial stratification.