Cyanobacteria in geothermal habitats

Abstract

Summary: In the last decade advances in high-throughput DNA and RNA sequencing have driven more intensive surveys of cyanobacterial diversity in geothermal systems worldwide and the development of a deeper understanding of well-studied hot spring cyanobacterial communities. As a consequence, it is now possible to build, atop the long-term studies of these systems based on morphological, pure-culture and initial 16S rRNA observations, a more thorough understanding of the biogeographical and local distributions of cyanobacteria in these settings. Population genetics studies with increased molecular, spatial and temporal resolution have begun to define the ecological species populations of thermophilic cyanobacteria and to reveal the processes that drove their evolution and current ecology. Metagenomic studies have begun to reveal the functional gene repertoire of the predominant cyanobacteria and associated members of communities in which they reside and with whom they interact. Gene expression studies, including metatranscritomic studies, have begun to reveal patterns of in situ gene expression.