@article {4998, title = {Antarctic lake viromes reveal potential virus associated influences on nutrient cycling in ice-covered lakes}, journal = {Frontiers in Microbiology}, volume = {15}, year = {2024}, month = {09/2024}, abstract = {

The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs) of Antarctica are a mosaic of extreme habitats which are dominated by microbial life. The MDVs include glacial melt holes, streams, lakes, and soils, which are interconnected through the transfer of energy and flux of inorganic and organic material via wind and hydrology. For the first time, we provide new data on the viral community structure and function in the MDVs through metagenomics of the planktonic and benthic mat communities of Lakes Bonney and Fryxell. Viral taxonomic diversity was compared across lakes and ecological function was investigated by characterizing auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) and predicting viral hosts. Our data suggest that viral communities differed between the lakes and among sites: these differences were connected to microbial host communities. AMGs were associated with the potential augmentation of multiple biogeochemical processes in host, most notably with phosphorus acquisition, organic nitrogen acquisition, sulfur oxidation, and photosynthesis. Viral genome abundances containing AMGs differed between the lakes and microbial mats, indicating site specialization. Using procrustes analysis, we also identified significant coupling between viral and bacterial communities (p = 0.001). Finally, host predictions indicate viral host preference among the assembled viromes. Collectively, our data show that: (i) viruses are uniquely distributed through the McMurdo Dry Valley lakes, (ii) their AMGs can contribute to overcoming host nutrient limitation and, (iii) viral and bacterial MDV communities are tightly coupled.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM, Antarctica, bacteria, limnology, metagenomics, virus}, doi = {10.3389/fmicb.2024.1422941}, url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1422941/full}, author = {Robinson, David M. and Rachael M. Morgan-Kiss and Wang, Zhong and Cristina D. Takacs-Vesbach} } @article {3214, title = {Autonomous Year-Round Sampling and Sensing to Explore the Physical and Biological Habitability of Permanently Ice-Covered Antarctic Lakes}, journal = {Marine Technology Society Journal}, volume = {48}, year = {2014}, month = {Jan-09-2014}, pages = {8 - 17}, abstract = {

The lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, are some of the only systems on our planet that are perennially ice-covered and support year-round metabolism. As such, these ecosystems can provide important information on conditions and life in polar regions on Earth and on other icy worlds in our solar system. Working in these extreme environments of the Dry Valleys poses many challenges, particularly with respect to data collection during dark winter months when logistical constraints make fieldwork difficult. In this paper, we describe the motivation, design, and challenges for this recently deployed instrumentation in Lake Bonney, a lake that has been the subject of summer research efforts for more than 40 years. The instrumentation deployed includes autonomous water, phytoplankton, and sediment samplers as well as cable-mounted profiling platforms with dissolved gas and fluorometry sensors. Data obtained from these instruments will allow us, for the first time, to define the habitability of this environment during the polar night. We include lessons learned during deployment and recommendations for effective instrument operation in these extreme conditions.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, issn = {00253324}, doi = {10.4031/MTSJ.48.5.6}, url = {http://openurl.ingenta.com/content/xref?genre=article\&issn=0025-3324\&volume=48\&issue=5\&spage=8http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mts/mtsj/2014/00000048/00000005/art00002}, author = {Winslow, Luke A. and Hilary A. Dugan and Heather N. Buelow and Cronin, Kyle D. and John C. Priscu and Cristina D. Takacs-Vesbach and Peter T. Doran} }