Although several studies have explored microbial communities in different terrestrial subsurface ecosystems, little is known about the diversity of their metabolic processes and survival strategies. The advance of bioinformatic tools is allowing the description of novel and not-yet cultivated microbial lineages in different ecosystems, due to the genome reconstruction approach from metagenomic data. The recovery of genomes has the potential of revealing novel lifestyles, metabolic processes and ecological roles of microorganisms, mainly in ecosystems that are largely unknown, and in which cultivation could be not viable. In this study, through shotgun metagenomic data, it was possible to reconstruct several genomes of cultivated and not-yet cultivated prokaryotic lineages from a quartzite cave, located in Minas Gerais state, Brazil, which showed to possess a high diversity of genes involved with different biogeochemical cycles, including reductive and oxidative pathways related to carbon, sulfur, nitrogen and iron. Tree genomes were selected, assigned as Truepera sp., Ca. Methylomirabilis sp. and Ca. Koribacter sp. based on their lifestyles (radiation resistance, anaerobic methane oxidation and potential iron oxidation) for pangenomic analysis, which exhibited genes involved with different DNA repair strategies, starvation and stress response. Since these groups have few reference genomes deposited in databases, our study adds important genomic information about these lineages. The combination of techniques applied in this study allowed us to unveil the potential relationships between microbial genomes and their ecological processes with the cave mineralogy, as well as to discuss their implications for the search for extant lifeforms outside our planet, in silica- and iron-rich environments, especially on Mars.

中文翻译：

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来自蒙特克里斯托山洞（巴西迪曼提纳）的由基因组组装的基因组揭示了原核世系作为火星生命的功能模型

尽管几项研究探索了不同陆地地下生态系统中的微生物群落，但对其代谢过程和生存策略的多样性知之甚少。由于利用宏基因组学数据进行基因组重建，生物信息学工具的发展使得可以描述不同生态系统中尚未建立的新型微生物谱系。基因组的恢复具有揭示微生物新的生活方式，代谢过程和生态作用的潜力，这些微生物主要存在于很大程度上未知的生态系统中，在这种生态系统中无法进行耕种。在这项研究中，通过shot弹枪宏基因组学数据，有可能从位于巴西米纳斯吉拉斯州的石英岩洞穴中重建已培养和尚未培养的原核世系的几个基因组。结果表明，该基因具有与不同生物地球化学循环有关的高多样性基因，包括与碳，硫，氮和铁有关的还原和氧化途径。选择树基因组，命名为Truepera sp。，Ca。甲基omi 和钙。Koribacter sp。根据他们的生活方式（抗辐射，厌氧甲烷氧化和潜在的铁氧化）进行泛基因组分析，结果显示了与不同DNA修复策略，饥饿和应激反应有关的基因。由于这些群体几乎没有参考基因组保存在数据库中，因此我们的研究增加了有关这些谱系的重要基因组信息。这项研究中使用的技术组合使我们能够揭示微生物基因组与其生态过程与洞穴矿物学之间的潜在关系，