In-depth culture-independent characterization of the prokaryotic community in a extreme acidic hot spring of the Colombian Andes

The microbial community of a Colombian high mountain hot spring, El Coquito, was analyzed using a culture-independent assessment, extracting the metagenomic DNA and pyrosequencing of the V5-V6 hypervariable region of 16S rRNA genes. El Coquito spring is located within protected areas, it has little or no anthropogenic influence into the central Andean mountain range in Colombia, which is part of a volcanic belt that generates geothermal activity , are located in the Neotropical ecoregion and are considered a hotspot for biodiversity. This hot spring have a high sulfate content and low pH and constitutes a unique and extreme ecosystem due to its high elevation (3,973 meters above sea level (masl)), exposure to UV light, water temperature and mineral composition. Furthermore, no research has been done regarding these water microbial communities. The main goal of this study is characterize the diversity and structure of the microbial communities in this sample.