Microbiome and ecology of a hot spring-microbialite system on the Trans-Himalayan Plateau

Little is known about life in the boron-rich hot springs of Trans-Himalayas. Here, we explore the geomicrobiology of a 4438-m-high spring which emanates ~70 ° C-water from a boratic microbialite called Shivlinga . Due to low atmospheric pressure, the vent-water is close to boiling point so can entropically destabilize biomacromolecular systems. Starting from the vent, Shivlinga ’s geomicrobiology was revealed along the thermal gradients of an outflow-channel and a progressively-drying mineral matrix that has no running water; ecosystem constraints were then considered in relation to those of entropically comparable environments. The spring-water chemistry and sinter mineralogy were dominated by borates, sodium, thiosulfate, sulfate, sulfite, sulfide, bicarbonate, and other macromolecule-stabilizing (kosmotropic) substances. Microbial diversity was high along both of the hydrothermal gradients. Bacteria, Eukarya and Archaea constituted >98%, ~1% and <1% of Shivlinga ’s microbiome, respectively. Temperature constrained the biodiversity at ~50 °C and ~60 °C, but not below 46 °C. Along each thermal gradient, in the vent-to-apron trajectory, communities were dominated by Aquificae / Deinococcus - Thermus , then Chlorobi / Chloroflexi /Cyanobacteria, and finally Bacteroidetes / Proteobacteria / Firmicutes . Interestingly, sites of >45 °C were inhabited by phylogenetic relatives of taxa for which laboratory growth is not known at >45 °C. Shivlinga ’s geomicrobiology highlights the possibility that the system’s kosmotrope-dominated chemistry mitigates against the biomacromolecule-disordering effects of its thermal water.