BIOGEOCHEMISTRY AND GENOMICS OF EXTREMELY ACIDIC LIMESTONE-CORRODING CAVE WALL BIOFILMS

Extremely acidic (pH 0-1) microbial biofilms called snottites form on the walls of sulfidic caves where gypsum replacement crusts isolate sulfur-oxidizing microorganisms from the buffering action of limestone host rock. We investigated the phylogeny and population structure of snottites from sulfidic caves in central Italy using full cycle rRNA methods, culturing and metagenomics. A small subunit rRNA bacterial clone library from a Frasassi cave complex snottite sample contained a single sequence group (>60 clones) similar to Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans. Bacterial and universal rRNA clone libraries from other Frasassi snottites were only slightly more diverse, containing a maximum of 4 bacterial species and probably 2 archaeal species. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) of snottites from Frasassi and from the much warmer Rio Garrafo cave complex revealed that all of the communities are simple (low-diversity) and dominated by Acidithiobacillus and/or Ferroplasma species, with smaller populations of an Acidimicrobium species, filamentous fungi, and protists. Our results suggest that sulfidic cave snottites will be excellent model microbial ecosystems suited for ecological and metagenomic studies aimed at elucidating geochemical and ecological controls on microbial diversity, and at mapping the spatial history of microbial evolutionary events such as adaptations, recombinations and gene transfers. Metagenomic data from the Frasassi snottites confirm the population structure suggested by earlier work and offer new glimpses of the physiology and biogeochemistry of the snottite community.