Deep Subsurface Basin and Range, Black Hills, and Canadian Shield Metagenome

This project targets deep microbial ecosystems of three significant, mostly unexplored (for microbiology) North American geological provinces: the Basin and Range, Black Hills, and Canadian Shield. In addition to their value for the exploration of novel deep habitats, these samples also allow us to address the following questions: (1) Is everything truly everywhere? (2) How does one recognize indigenous deep life? and (3) Is it possible via existing excavations to sample below the lower biosphere limit? These metagenomic datasets complement marker gene sequencing submitted as PRJNA268940. PI Duane Moser