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. 2021 May;81(4):884-896.
doi: 10.1007/s00248-020-01623-5. Epub 2020 Nov 6.

Microbial Community Characterizing Vermiculations from Karst Caves and Its Role in Their Formation

Rosangela Addesso  1 , Jose L Gonzalez-Pimentel  2 , Ilenia M D'Angeli  3 , Jo De Waele  3 , Cesareo Saiz-Jimenez  4 , Valme Jurado  4 , Ana Z Miller  2 , Beatriz Cubero  4 , Giovanni Vigliotta  5 , Daniela Baldantoni  5
Affiliations

Microbial Community Characterizing Vermiculations from Karst Caves and Its Role in Their Formation

Rosangela Addesso et al. Microb Ecol. 2021 May.

Abstract

The microbiota associated with vermiculations from karst caves is largely unknown. Vermiculations are enigmatic deposits forming worm-like patterns on cave walls all over the world. They represent a precious focus for geomicrobiological studies aimed at exploring both the microbial life of these ecosystems and the vermiculation genesis. This study comprises the first approach on the microbial communities thriving in Pertosa-Auletta Cave (southern Italy) vermiculations by next-generation sequencing. The most abundant phylum in vermiculations was Proteobacteria, followed by Acidobacteria > Actinobacteria > Nitrospirae > Firmicutes > Planctomycetes > Chloroflexi > Gemmatimonadetes > Bacteroidetes > Latescibacteria. Numerous less-represented taxonomic groups (< 1%), as well as unclassified ones, were also detected. From an ecological point of view, all the groups co-participate in the biogeochemical cycles in these underground environments, mediating oxidation-reduction reactions, promoting host rock dissolution and secondary mineral precipitation, and enriching the matrix in organic matter. Confocal laser scanning microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy brought evidence of a strong interaction between the biotic community and the abiotic matrix, supporting the role of microbial communities in the formation process of vermiculations.

Keywords: Cave ecology; Geomicrobiology; Next-generation sequencing; Pertosa-Auletta Cave; Underground ecosystem; Vermicular deposits.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Pertosa-Auletta Cave (Campania, southern Italy) karst system; yellow points indicate the collected vermiculations, with the corresponding texture model, in the Active (A, blue), Fossil (F, yellow), Paradise (P, violet), and Tourist (T, green) trails
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Bacterial composition of vermiculations from Pertosa-Auletta Cave; the barplots show the relative abundances (%) at phylum (a), class (b), and order (c) levels of samples from the Active (A, blue), Fossil (F, yellow), Paradise (P, violet), and Tourist (T, green) branches, with corresponding dendrograms (a, b, c) and PCA analysis (d, e, f)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
NMDS analysis, with confidence ellipses (α = 0.05) for the four branches [Active (A, blue), Fossil (F, yellow), Paradise (P, violet), and Tourist (T, green)], based on the total microbial community (red labels) and the geochemical characteristics (black labels) of the same vermiculations, as reported in Addesso et al. [17]
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
CLSM images of A4 (a, b), F1 (c), and T1 (d) vermiculation samples, showing the presence of microbial clusters (green-colored zones) dyed with SYBR Green staining
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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