A Metagenome From a Steam Vent in Los Azufres Geothermal Field Shows an Abundance of Thermoplasmatales Archaea and Bacteria from the Phyla Actinomycetota and Pseudomonadota

Los Azufres National Park is a geothermal field that has a wide number of thermal manifestations; nevertheless, the microbial communities in many of these environments remain unknown.

In this study, a metagenome from a sediment sample from Los Azufres National Park was sequenced. In this metagenome, we found that the microbial diversity corresponds to bacteria (Actinomycetota, Pseudomonadota), archaea (Thermoplasmatales and Candidatus Micrarchaeota and Candidatus Parvarchaeota), eukarya (Cyanidiaceae), and viruses (Fussellovirus and Caudoviricetes).

The functional annotation showed genes related to the carbon fixation pathway, sulfur metabolism, genes involved in heat and cold shock, and heavy-metal resistance. From the sediment, it was possible to recover two metagenome-assembled genomes from Ferrimicrobium and Cuniculiplasma.

Our results showed that there are a large number of microorganisms in Los Azufres that deserve to be studied.

Geographic location of collection site. (A) Geographic location of collection site (19.78170609819753 N, −100.65805210414699 W). The Los Azufres geothermal field’s zone is shown in the image. Google-Earth-generated image. (B) Sample of sediment taken from the Los Azufres geothermal field. Inside the rectangle, a sample of the green sediment was obtained. — Curr. Issues Mol. Biol.

A Metagenome from a Steam Vent in Los Azufres Geothermal Field Shows an Abundance of Thermoplasmatales archaea and Bacteria from the Phyla Actinomycetota and Pseudomonadota, Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. (open access)

Astrobiology,