Tosado Rodríguez, Eduardo L.

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    Phylogenetic and taxonomical characterization of microbial populations putatively capable of autotrophic ammonia oxidation from marine, saline and hypersaline environments at the Cabo Rojo Salterns, Puerto Rico
    (2016) Tosado Rodríguez, Eduardo L.; Montalvo Rodríguez, Rafael R.; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Rodríguez Minguela, Carlos; Santos Flores, Carlos; Siritunga, Dimuth; Department of Biology; Navarro Rodríguez, Ana J.
    Autotrophic ammonia oxidation has been studied over the years and several enzymes involved in this metabolism have been identified. This metabolism has been detected in several environments, but there are no reports of it in hypersaline environments. To address this lack of information, microbial isolates from the Cabo Rojo Salterns in Puerto Rico, were screened for ammonia oxidation and autotrophic capabilities in genomic and metagenomic DNA samples. Three sampling sites having different salinity levels, Bahía Sucia Beach (BSB), Fraternidad Lagoon (FL) and Crystallizers Ponds (CP) were analyzed. A total of 113 strains were isolated and phylogenetically classified using the 16S rRNA. In general, isolated strains were related to the genera Haloarcula, Halorbrum and Chromohalobacter. Three strains isolated from CP were identified as potential novel species by 16S rRNA analysis and for it, they were biochemically and phylogenetically characterized. These strains were carriers of the accC gene (related to autotrophic metabolism) and also had the ability of autotrophic growth. Autotrophically grown bacterial isolates related to the genus Chromohalobacter, amplified the bacterial ammonia oxidation gene (amoA). This genus have never been reported neither as autotrophic nor as an ammonia oxidizer. In the metagenomic analysis, amoA was detected only in BSB samples. This suggests that high salt concentrations might be diminishing the populations of ammonia oxidizing microorganisms. Nonetheless, accC was identified in metagenomic and genomic DNA samples from CP and FL. This study presents the first report of autotrophic related genes in members of the Euryarchaeota kingdom and in metagenomic DNA from solar salterns. Also, these findings demonstrate that autotrophic metabolism might be more common in saline and hypersaline environments than previously thought.