News Microbes

Antarctic lake microbes have flexible survival strategies 

Genetic data reveal a hidden, subglacial ecosystem evolving in isolation 

A research team in white protective suits works on a platform in Antarctica with a red crane lowering equipment into the ice. Portable shelters and supply containers surround the site.

At a remote field camp in West Antarctica, scientists drilled through 1,100 meters of ice to reach the perpetually dark waters of the subglacial Lake Mercer.

SALSA

By Douglas Fox

Scientists have gotten their closest-ever view of the denizens that inhabit a frigid underworld. 

An analysis of the genetic blueprints of nearly 1,400 microbes sampled from one buried Antarctic lake reveals that these single-celled creatures have surprisingly flexible metabolisms and are evolutionarily distant from any other known microbes, researchers report August 18 in Nature Communications.