16S pyrotag of SA and BW in Kartchner Caverns
16S rRNA sequences isolated from Kartchner Caverns
The samples were taken in Kartchner Caverns, a carbonate cave in southern Arizona, USA. This cave is characterized by oligotrophic conditions, high humidity and elevated carbon dioxide levels. These characteristics make it a challenging environment for microbial survival and represent the possibility to find unknown microbial life.  In 2006, Kartchner was designated a National Science Foundation Microbial Observatory for which a major goal is to determine the structure and diversity of cave bacterial communities and the variation among different formations. For this purpose we took swab samples from nine speleothems surfaces and one rock wall in two separate rooms of the cave. Genomic DNA was extracted from each sample and the V6 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was amplified and sequenced using 454 pyrosequencing.