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Article
Open AccessAssessment of fungal spores and spore-like diversity in environmental samples by targeted lysis
At particular stages during their life cycles, fungi use multiple strategies to form specialized structures to survive unfavorable environmental conditions. These strategies encompass sporulation, as well as c...
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Article
Atacama Database: a platform of the microbiome of the Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert is one of the oldest and driest places on Earth. In the last decade, microbial richness and diversity has been acknowledged as an important biological resource of this region. Owing to the v...
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Chapter
Microbial Communities Composition, Activity, and Dynamics at Salar de Huasco: A Polyextreme Environment in the Chilean Altiplano
Salar de Huasco is a high-altitude (3800 m a.s.l.) polyextreme aquatic environment located in the Chilean Altiplano. This chapter highlights over 15 years of microbial ecology research conducted in this fascin...
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Preface
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Article
Introducing the Atacama Desert
This brief introduction is intended to orientate the reader with respect to the principal environmental and historical features of the Atacama Desert, the oldest and continuously driest non-polar temperate des...
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Article
Microbial community composition and trophic role along a marked salinity gradient in Laguna Puilar, Salar de Atacama, Chile
The geological, hydrological and microbiological features of the Salar de Atacama, the most extensive evaporitic sedimentary basin in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, have been extensively studied. In con...
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Article
Rhodobacter sp. Rb3, an aerobic anoxygenic phototroph which thrives in the polyextreme ecosystem of the Salar de Huasco, in the Chilean Altiplano
The Salar de Huasco is an evaporitic basin located in the Chilean Altiplano, which presents extreme environmental conditions for life, i.e. high altitude (3800 m.a.s.l.), negative water balance, a wide salinit...
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Article
Distribution of greenhouse gases in hyper-arid and arid areas of northern Chile and the contribution of the high altitude wetland microbiome (Salar de Huasco, Chile)
Northern Chile harbors different bioclimatic zones including hyper-arid and arid ecosystems and hotspots of microbial life, such as high altitude wetlands, which may contribute differentially to greenhouse gas...
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Article
Open AccessSubtercola vilae sp. nov., a novel actinobacterium from an extremely high-altitude cold volcano lake in Chile
A novel actinobacterium, strain DB165T, was isolated from cold waters of Llullaillaco Volcano Lake (6170 m asl) in Chile. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences identified strain DB165T as belongi...
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Article
Abenquines A–D: aminoquinone derivatives produced by Streptomyces sp. strain DB634
New bioactive secondary metabolites, called abenquines, were found in the fermentation broth of Streptomyces sp. strain DB634, which was isolated from the soils of the Chilean highland of the Atacama Desert. They...
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Article
Open AccessPhylogenetic and functional marker genes to study ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms (AOM) in the environment
The oxidation of ammonia plays a significant role in the transformation of fixed nitrogen in the global nitrogen cycle. Autotrophic ammonia oxidation is known in three groups of microorganisms. Aerobic ammonia...
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Article
Open AccessMolecular analysis of enrichment cultures of ammonia oxidizers from the Salar de Huasco, a high altitude saline wetland in northern Chile
We analyzed enrichment cultures of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) collected from different areas of Salar de Huasco, a high altitude, saline, pH-neutral water body in the Chilean Altiplano. Samples were inoc...
