Photovoltaic panels can be colonized by a highly diverse microbial diversity, despite life-threatening conditions. Although they are distributed worldwide, the microorganisms living on their surfaces have never been profiled in tropical regions using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing and PICRUst metagenome prediction of functional content. In this work, we investigated photovoltaic panels from two cities in southeast Brazil, Sorocaba and Itatiba, using these bioinformatics approach. Results showed that, despite significant differences in microbial diversity (p < 0.001), the taxonomic profile was very similar for both photovoltaic panels, dominated mainly by Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota and lower amounts of Cyanobacteria phyla. A predominance of Hymenobacter and Methylobacterium-Methylorubrum was observed at the genus level. We identified a microbial common core composed of Hymenobacter, Deinococcus, Sphingomonas, Methylobacterium-Methylorubrum, Craurococcus-Caldovatus, Massilia, Noviherbaspirillum and 1174-901-12 sharing genera. Predicted metabolisms focused on specific genes associated to radiation and desiccation resistance and pigments, were detected in members of the common core and among the most abundant genera. Our results suggested that taxonomic and functional profiles investigated were consistent with the harsh environment that photovoltaic panels represent. Moreover, the presence of stress genes in the predicted functional content was a preliminary evidence that microbes living there are a possibly source of metabolites with biotechnological interest.

中文翻译：

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极端嗜热类群在热带地区光伏电池板的微生物群落中占主导地位

尽管存在危及生命的条件，但光伏电池板仍可以被高度多样化的微生物多样性所占据。尽管它们分布在世界各地，但从未使用 16S rRNA 高通量测序和功能内容的 PICRUst 宏基因组预测在热带地区对生活在其表面的微生物进行分析。在这项工作中，我们使用这些生物信息学方法调查了巴西东南部两个城市索罗卡巴和伊塔蒂巴的光伏电池板。结果表明，尽管微生物多样性存在显着差异 ( p < 0.001)，但两种光伏面板的分类特征非常相似，主要由变形杆菌、拟杆菌和少量蓝藻门主导。的优势Hymenobacter和在属水平上观察到甲基杆菌-Methylorubrum。我们确定了一个微生物共同核心，由膜内杆菌、奇异球菌、鞘氨醇单胞菌、甲基杆菌-甲基红杆菌、Craurococcus-Caldovatus、马西利亚、新赫巴斯德菌和1174-901-12 组成共享属。在共同核心的成员和最丰富的属中检测到预测的代谢集中在与辐射和干燥抗性和色素相关的特定基因上。我们的结果表明，所研究的分类和功能概况与光伏面板所代表的恶劣环境一致。此外，预测的功能内容中存在应激基因是初步证据，表明生活在那里的微生物可能是具有生物技术意义的代谢物来源。