Abstract

Acidic salt lakes are environments that harbor an array of biologically challenging conditions. Through 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, and ITS amplicon sequencing of eight such lakes across the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia, we aim to understand the microbial ecology of these lakes with a focus on iron- and sulfur-oxidizing and reducing microorganisms that have theoretical application in biomining industries. In spite of the biological challenges to life in these lakes, the microbial communities were highly diverse. Redundancy analysis of soil samples revealed sulfur, ammonium, organic carbon, and potassium were significant diversities of the microbial community composition. The most abundant microbes with a hypothetical application in biomining include the genus 9 M32 of the Acidithiobacillus family, Alicyclobacillus and Acidiphilium, all of which are possible iron- and/or sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. It is evident through this study that these lakes harbor multiple organisms with potential in biomining industries that should be exploited and studied further.

RAS ID

65020

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

1-1-2024

Volume

15

Funding Information

Bioplatforms Australia / Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) / Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) / Parks Australia / Bush Blitz program / Australian Government / BHP / CSIRO

School

School of Science

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Publisher

Frontiers Media S.A.

Comments

Boase, K., Santini, T., & Watkin, E. (2024). Microbes of biotechnological importance in acidic saline lakes in the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia. Frontiers in Microbiology, 15, article 1308797. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1308797

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.3389/fmicb.2024.1308797