Abstract
Terrestrial thermal springs are widely distributed globally, and these springs harbor a broad diversity of organisms of biotechnological interest. In Mexico, few studies exploring this kind of environment have been described. In this work, we explore the microbial community in Chignahuapan hot springs, which provides clues to understand these ecosystems’ diversity. We assessed the diversity of the microorganism communities in a hot spring environment with a metagenomic shotgun approach. Besides identifying similarities and differences with other ecosystems, we achieved a systematic comparison against 11 metagenomic samples from diverse localities. The Chignahuapan hot springs show a particular prevalence of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria from the genera Rhodococcus, Thermomonas, Thiomonas, Acinetobacter, Sulfurovum, and Bacillus, highlighting those that are different from other recovered bacterial populations in circumneutral hot springs environments around the world. The co-occurrence analysis of the bacteria and viruses in these environments revealed that within the Rhodococcus, Thiomonas, Thermonas, and Bacillus genera, the Chignahuapan samples have specific species of bacteria with a particular abundance, such as Rhodococcus erytropholis. The viruses in the circumneutral hot springs present bacteriophages within the order Caudovirales (Siphoviridae, Myoviridae, and Podoviridae), but the family of Herelleviridae was the most abundant in Chignahuapan samples. Furthermore, viral auxiliary metabolic genes were identified, many of which contribute mainly to the metabolism of cofactors and vitamins as well as carbohydrate metabolism. Nevertheless, the viruses and bacteria present in the circumneutral environments contribute to the sulfur cycle. This work represents an exhaustive characterization of a community structure in samples collected from hot springs in Mexico and opens opportunities to identify organisms of biotechnological interest.
Highlights
Terrestrial thermal springs are widely distributed throughout the world
The sulfate was found with a concentration of 25.6 and 30.2 mg L−1 in Mex_Chig_S1 and Mex_Chig_S2, respectively; in the site, there was an intense smell of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), indicating that the sulfate was being reduced to hydrogen sulfide by sulfate-reducing microorganisms
The microbial community structure in particular in each location is driven by physicochemical properties, but many metabolic pathways were common in circumneutral terrestrial hot springs, (K00012), propanoate metabolism (K00822), and glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism
Summary
Terrestrial thermal springs are widely distributed throughout the world. They harbor a significant number of microorganisms of biotechnological interest. These ecosystems have been classified in low-temperature (55 ◦C) springs; in terms of pH, the springs are acidic (pH < 4), intermediate (pH ~4), circumneutral or neutral (pH ~7), or alkaline (pH > 7) [1,2,3]. Intermediate or circumneutral hot springs exhibit a high diversity of microorganisms; biodiversity generally decreases with increasing temperature and decreasing pH [21]
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