Metaproteome, Deep Lake, Antarctica

Deep Lake is a hypersaline system in Antarctica (68°33’36.8S, 78°11’48.7E) that is so saline it remains liquid at –20°C (DeMaere et al 2013). The lake is dominated by haloarchaea, comprising a low-complexity community that differs greatly to warm-hot latitude hypersaline systems, is hierarchical structured, and supports a high level of intergenera gene exchange. Metaproteomics was performed on biomass that was collected in the austral summer of 2008 by sequential size fractionation (20 – 3 µm, 3 – 0.8 µm, 0.8 – 0.1 µm). The data were integrated to obtain a systems level view of the active host-virus interactions occurring in this novel aquatic Antarctic system. DeMaere MZ, Williams TJ, Allen MA, Brown MV, Gibson JA, Rich J, Lauro FM, Dyall-Smith M, Davenport KW, Woyke T, Kyrpides NC, Tringe SG, Cavicchioli R (2013) High level of intergenera gene exchange shapes the evolution of haloarchaea in an isolated Antarctic lake. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 16939-16944