Identification and Stratification of Cultured Microorganisms from Wind Cave

Abstract

Wind Cave National Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota contains many fungal, bacterial, and archaeal organisms. These biotic communities tend to be low in diversity and sensitive to changes in external inputs of organic matter from seasonal snow melts and tourist traffic. Tourist traffic in particular can affect the natural state of the cave environment and alter species composition and population densities of the resident biota. The goal of this project was the molecular identification of the various fungal and bacterial samples between remote and public sites of Wind Cave to better understand the impact of tourist traffic on cave biota. DNA obtained from cultured samples was used to perform PCR‐based sequencing analysis using primers targeting either a specific region of the 16S small ribosomal subunit for identifying bacteria or an internal transcribed spacer (ITS) for identifying fungal lineages. Phylogenetic trees were created of both the fungal and bacterial genra stratified by cave location.