Biotechnological potential in agriculture of soil Antarctic microorganisms revealed by omics approach. Metagenomic of Antarctic soil

The biotechnological potential for agricultural applications in the soil in the thawing process on Whalers Bay, Deception Island, Antarctica was evaluated using a metagenomic approach through high-throughput sequencing. Approximately 22.70% of the sequences were affiliated to the phyla of the Bacteria dominion, followed by 0.26% to the Eukarya. Proteobacteria (Bacteria) and Ascomycota (Fungi) were the most abundant phyla. Thirty-two and thirty-six bacterial and fungal genera associated with agricultural biotechnological applications were observed. Strep-tomyces and Pythium were the most abundant genera related to the Bacteria and Oomycota, re-spectively. The main metabolic pathway associated with bacteria was nitrogen affixation; in con-trast, the metabolic pathway for fungi was associated with phytopathogenic capabilities. The present study showed the need to use metagenomic technology to understand the dynamics and possible metabolic pathways associated with the microbial communities present in the soil sam-ple in the process of thawing recovered from the Antarctic continent, which presented potential application in processes of agro-industrial interest.