Crits-Christoph et al. Microbiome 2013, 1:28 http://www.microbiomejournal.com/content/1/1/28
RESEARCH
Open Access
Colonization patterns of soil microbial communities in the Atacama Desert Alexander Crits-Christoph1, Courtney K Robinson1, Tyler Barnum1, W Florian Fricke2, Alfonso F Davila3, Bruno Jedynak4, Christopher P McKay3 and Jocelyne DiRuggiero1*
Abstract Background: The Atacama Desert is one of the driest deserts in the world and its soil, with extremely low moisture, organic carbon content, and oxidizing conditions, is considered to be at the dry limit for life. Results: Analyses of high throughput DNA sequence data revealed that bacterial communities from six geographic locations in the hyper-arid core and along a North-South moisture gradient were structurally and phylogenetically distinct (ANOVA test for observed operating taxonomic units at 97% similarity (OTU0.03), P
RESEARCH
Open Access
Colonization patterns of soil microbial communities in the Atacama Desert Alexander Crits-Christoph1, Courtney K Robinson1, Tyler Barnum1, W Florian Fricke2, Alfonso F Davila3, Bruno Jedynak4, Christopher P McKay3 and Jocelyne DiRuggiero1*
Abstract Background: The Atacama Desert is one of the driest deserts in the world and its soil, with extremely low moisture, organic carbon content, and oxidizing conditions, is considered to be at the dry limit for life. Results: Analyses of high throughput DNA sequence data revealed that bacterial communities from six geographic locations in the hyper-arid core and along a North-South moisture gradient were structurally and phylogenetically distinct (ANOVA test for observed operating taxonomic units at 97% similarity (OTU0.03), P
