Microbes can be found in hypersaline environments forming diverse populations with complex ecological interactions. Microbes in such environments were found to be involved in the formation of minerals including dolomite, a mineral of economic importance and whose origin has been long-debated. Various reports on in vitro experiments using pure cultures provided evidence for the microbial role in dolomite formation. However, culturing experiments have been limited in scope and do not fully address the possible interactions of the naturally occurring microbial communities; consequently, the ability of microbes as a community to form dolomite has been investigated in this study. Our experiments focused on examining the microbial composition by culturing aerobic heterotrophs from the top hypersaline sediments of Al-Khiran sabkha in Kuwait, a modern dolomite-forming environment. The objectives of this study were to assess the ability of two microbial consortia to form dolomite using enrichment culture experiments, mineralogy, and metagenomics. Proto-dolomite was formed by a microbial community dominated by Halomonas strains whereby degradation of the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) was observed and the pH changed from 7.00 to 8.58. Conversely, proto-dolomite was not observed within a microbial community dominated by Clostridiisalibacter in which EPS continuously accumulated and the pH slightly changed from 7.00 to 7.29.

中文翻译：

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由嗜盐单胞菌菌株控制的微生物群落中的原白云石形成。

在高盐环境中可以发现微生物，形成具有复杂生态相互作用的不同种群。发现在这种环境中的微生物参与了包括白云石在内的矿物的形成，白云石是一种具有经济重要性的矿物，其起源已被人们长期争论。使用纯培养物进行的体外实验的各种报道为微生物在白云石形成中的作用提供了证据。但是，培养实验的范围有限，不能完全解决自然存在的微生物群落之间可能的相互作用。因此，本研究研究了微生物作为群落形成白云石的能力。我们的实验着重于通过培养科威特Al-Khiran sabkha顶部高盐沉积物中的需氧异养菌来检测微生物的组成，现代的白云石形成环境。这项研究的目的是使用富集培养实验，矿物学和宏基因组学评估两个微生物聚生体形成白云岩的能力。白云母是由微生物群落形成的观察到胞外聚合物（EPS）降解的盐单胞菌菌株，并且pH从7.00变为8.58。相反，在以梭状芽孢杆菌为支配的微生物群落中未观察到原白云母，其中EPS不断积累，pH值从7.00略微改变为7.29。