PRJNA476489
Metagenomics of the Iberian Pyrite Belt Deep Subsurface
The Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB; Southwestern Spain) hosts one of the largest sulphide deposits in the world, as well as the Río Tinto Mars analog. To investigate its subsurface microbiology, we performed a 613 meter-deep borehole implementing procedures for aseptic sampling and for tracing potential contamination events during drilling and subsequent processing of the retrieved rock cores. The resulting core samples were characterized via 16S rRNA gene profiling and metagenomics.