This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Scientists have often wondered about species that are unique to Antarctica. But the focus has mainly been on animals, like feathery penguins.
CIRES researchers wanted to dig deeper—into the soils—believing tiny organisms could be unique to the continent, too. The team, led by postdoctoral researcher Nick Dragone and co-authored by CIRES Fellow and director of the Center for Microbial Exploration Noah Fierer, recently found evidence that specific microbes in Antarctica's soils are endemic—located on the continent and nowhere else on Earth. The novel results were published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"There is a long-standing assumption in microbiology that 'everything is everywhere,'" Dragone said. "Antarctica has often been viewed as a possible exception, and our findings support that idea. Some Antarctic soil microbes appear to be distinct from those found in soils elsewhere around the world." Unlike animals or plants, microbes can disperse far, moving around the planet in ways other species can't.
They may catch an updraft and float into the atmosphere or hitch a ride on an ocean current out to sea. The authors believed searching for endemic microbes in isolated Antarctica, the most extreme environment on Earth, might prove that assumption wrong. "If we're looking for endemic microorganisms, a good place to start is Antarctica, because it's an entire continent that is geographically isolated," Fierer said.
"It also has unique conditions not typically found in other soil environments. Cold is the obvious one, but it is also super dry; Antarctica is a desert." To test this hypothesis, the team focused on bacterial strains within the Arthrobacter group because this group is common in soils from Antarctica to Colorado to the tropics. These strains can also be easy to grow in a lab, which was an important step in their research.
"Arthrobacter as a group may be found all over the planet, but when we look closely at individual strains, just like penguins, Antarctica clearly has its own distinctive biological history," said Byron Adams, professor of biology at Brigham Young University and a co-author of the study. In the new study, the researchers analyzed soil samples from Antarctica and similar cold, dry environments like the Tibetan Plateau, Svalbard in the Arctic, and Chile's Atacama Desert. In total, they tested more than 100 Antarctic strains and nearly 500 from other locations worldwide.
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