AUTHOR=Ghezzi Daniele , Foschi Lisa , Firrincieli Andrea , Hong Pei-Ying , Vergara Freddy , De Waele Jo , Sauro Francesco , Cappelletti Martina TITLE=Insights into the microbial life in silica-rich subterranean environments: microbial communities and ecological interactions in an orthoquartzite cave (Imawarì Yeuta, Auyan Tepui, Venezuela) JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=13 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.930302 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.930302 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=
Microbial communities inhabiting caves in quartz-rich rocks are still underexplored, despite their possible role in the silica cycle. The world’s longest orthoquartzite cave, Imawarì Yeuta, represents a perfect arena for the investigation of the interactions between microorganisms and silica in non-thermal environments due to the presence of extraordinary amounts of amorphous silica speleothems of different kinds. In this work, the microbial diversity of Imawarì Yeuta was dissected by analyzing nineteen samples collected from different locations representative of different silica amorphization phases and types of samples. Specifically, we investigated the major ecological patterns in cave biodiversity, specific taxa enrichment, and the main ecological clusters through co-occurrence network analysis. Water content greatly contributed to the microbial communities’ composition and structures in the cave leading to the sample clustering into three groups DRY, WET, and WATER. Each of these groups was enriched in members of