Hypolithic microbial communities from Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica: Targeted loci environmental. Hypolithic microbial communities

We characterise both the photosynthetic and heterotrophic components of bacterial and eukaryote hypolithic communities throughout the Vestfold Hills using high-throughput DNA sequencing of the 16S and 18S ribosomal RNA genes. Although polar hypolithic communities are known to support eukaryotes such as chlorophyte algae (e.g., Broady, 1981), moss and fungi (e.g., Cowan et al., 2010), the eukaryotic component of Antarctic hypoliths has rarely been characterised with high-throughput DNA sequencing (although see Khan et al., 2011). We examine community composition and the inferred metabolic profiles of bacterial communities over water availability and salinity gradients.