Microbial Biodiversity of Cryoconites in Palandöken Mountain and Culturing Cold-Adapted Enzyme Producers

Abstract

Palandöken Mountain is among the highest and coldest ecosystems of Türkiye, and knowledge on its microbial diversity has not been adequately characterized. The aim of the present study is to expand the current understanding of microbial diversity in Palandöken Mountain. Sampling studies were carried out at in winter an altitude of 2400–2900 m. A next-generation sequencing (NGS) based culture-independent approach was employed for elucidating the community structure in the 8 cryoconite samples using 16S and 23S rRNA gene sequencing. In addition, biotechnologically important cold-adapted enzyme producers were isolated and identified by employing conventional culture-dependent studies. High-throughput sequencing analysis revealed the presence of 36 bacterial and 2 fungal phyla. The bacterial communities of 8 samples were dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Acidobacteria. The fungal communities were dominated by Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. 2900 different taxonomic group for bacterial diversity and 51 for fungal diversity were reported in the present study. Furthermore, 25 cold-adapted enzyme-producers were isolated and identified in the culture-dependent studies. Each selected isolate was capable of producing at least one of the enzymes amylase, protease, lipase, cellulase and xylanase isolates were assigned to Aspergillus, Bacillus, Cladosporium, Dioszegia, Flavobacterium, Fusarium, Holtermanniella, Naganishia, Polaromonas, Protomyces, Pseudomonas Rhodosporidiobolus, Vishniacozyma and Yarrowia genera. Consequently, this is the first geomicrobiological investigation that describes bacterial and fungal diversity of cryoconites from Palandöken Mountain using an NGS-based culture-independent approach. Additionally, cultured cold-adapted enzyme producer isolates of the present study have a valuable potential for the development of new biotechnological tools for various industrial applications.

Keywords:

• Cryoconite
• cold active enzymes
• metagenomics
• microbial biodiversity
• palandöken mountain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Atatürk University Coordinatorship of Scientific Research Projects under [Grant number FYL-2021-9054].