Hermes Hernan Bolivar-Torres

In arid environments, microorganisms face abiotic stressors like temperature extremes, low humidity, nutrient scarcity, and intense solar radiation. This study offers a preliminary characterization of two culturable UV-tolerant bacterial isolates in the Candelaria Desert (Villa de Leyva, Boyacá, Colombia). A 500 g soil sample was collected and processed using a randomized block design with three replicates. Serial dilutions (10^–1 to 10^–3) were plated and exposed to UV light for 72 h. UV-tolerant colonies were subcultured for biochemical characterization, and genomic DNA was extracted from two isolates. 16S rRNA sequencing identified Sinomonas sp. (98.96%) and Leifsonia soli (99.68%). Morphological and biochemical traits matched molecular findings. In silico analysis suggested the presence of UV-resistance mechanisms, including nucleotide excision repair (NER). These results offer initial insight into the adaptive strategies of microorganisms in this desert environment and underscore the importance of further exploring microbial diversity in the Candelaria Desert.

Extreme environments are places where sustaining life is considered challenging by human standards due to harmful environmental conditions. In the last decades, these kinds of environments have awakened the interest of planetary scientists due to their similar conditions to extraplanetary bodies. Most of the research done in extreme environments has been conducted in the North American and Eurasian regions, while in Latin America only the most outstanding places have been explored, even though the region hosts numerous and varied extreme environments. The primary aim of this review is to present an extensive catalogue of around 300 extreme environments in Latin America. We classify them into deserts and semi-arid environments, geothermal and hydrothermal environments, glaciers and high mountain environments and hypersaline environments. Our review found that a great number of those environments remain unexplored or partially studied; however, many of those environments show multi-extreme features, becoming suitable to conduct astrobiology experiments such as biosignatures detection or planetary analogue missions. This review brings to current and future researchers a summary of the environmental properties of each place and their respective locations, to promote astrobiology and planetary science research in Latin America.

Extreme environments are places where sustaining life is considered challenging by human standarts due to harmful environmental conditions. In the last decades, these kinds of environments have awakened the interest of planetary scientists due to their similar conditions to extraplanetary bodies. Most of the research done in extreme environments has been conducted in the North American and Eurasian regions, while in Latin America only the most outstanding places have been explored, even though the region hosts numerous and varied extreme environments. The primary aim of this review is to present an extensive catalogue of around 300 extreme environments in Latin America. We classify them into deserts and semi-arid environments, geothermal and hydrothermal environments, glaciers and high mountain environments, and hypersaline environments. Our review found that a great number of those environments remain unexplored or partially studied; however, many of those environments show multi-extreme features, becoming suitable to conduct astrobiology experiments such as biosignatures detection or planetary analogue missions. This review brings to current and future researchers a summary of the environmental properties of each place and their respective locations, to promote astrobiology and planetary science research in Latin America.

Los Azufres National Park is a geothermal field that has a wide number of thermal manifestations; nevertheless, the microbial communities in many of these environments remain unknown. In this study, a metagenome from a sediment sample from Los Azufres National Park was sequenced. In this metagenome, we found that the microbial diversity corresponds to bacteria (Actinomycetota, Pseudomonadota), archaea (Thermoplasmatales and Candidatus Micrarchaeota and Candidatus Parvarchaeota), eukarya (Cyanidiaceae), and viruses (Fussellovirus and Caudoviricetes). The functional annotation showed genes related to the carbon fixation pathway, sulfur metabolism, genes involved in heat and cold shock, and heavy-metal resistance. From the sediment, it was possible to recover two metagenome-assembled genomes from Ferrimicrobium and Cuniculiplasma. Our results showed that there are a large number of microorganisms in Los Azufres that deserve to be studied.