New life forms discovered in ancient caves in Hawaii
In wide variety
Scientists in Hawaii were surprised by the huge variety of new organisms they discovered in caves, which were formed by the island’s volcanic activity. The underground structures were formed from 65 to 800 years ago and are in total darkness, as the Sun’s rays do not reach there. They contain toxic gases and minerals, yet colonies of microbes thrive in these harsh conditions.
The scientists compared 70 RNA samples and none matched any known genomes. Microbes make up the largest biomass on the planet, but because of their small size and the extreme conditions they live in, we don’t have much information about them. In fact, recent estimates say that 99.999% of the species of microbes remain unknown and for this reason many call them the ” dark matter ” of our planet.
Lava corridors 500-800 years old harbored a greater variety of populations than still active geothermal sites less than 400 years old. In the younger caves, the microbes were less closely related, suggesting that there is more competition in more extreme environments, reducing the chances of related species living side by side.
This leads to the question of whether the extreme environment helps create more interconnected microbial communities, with microorganisms more dependent on each other. And if so, what are the extreme conditions that help create them?
Impressive is the fact that some microbes act as a connecting link, bringing other microbes together, providing sources of carbon to the ecosystem. But this is just an assumption.
Overall, the study helps show how important it is to study microbes in a symbiotic environment, as opposed to studying them in isolation in the lab. In the natural world microbes do not grow in isolation. They grow, live and interact with many more microorganisms in a sea of chemical signals from other microbes. This can change the expression of genes, affecting their role in the ecosystem.
The study was published in Frontiers in Microbiology .
