A new environment for aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria: biological soil crusts

Phototrophic microorganisms are critical to the carbon cycling and productivity of biological soil crusts, which enhance water content, nutrient relations and mechanical stability of arid soils. Only oxygen-producing phototrophs, including cyanobacteria and algae, are known from soil crusts, but Earth's second major branch of photosynthetic organisms, the evolutionarily earlier anoxygenic phototrophs, is unreported. We announce the discovery of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs in three Canadian soil crust communities. We found in a culture-based study that they comprised 0.1-5.9% of the cultivable bacterial community in moss-, lichen- and cyanobacteria-dominated crust from sand dunes and sandy soils. Comparable in density to aerobic phototrophs in other habitats, the bacteriochlorophyll a-possessing pink and orange isolates were related to species of Methylobacterium (99.0-99.5%), Belnapia (97.4-98.8%), Muricoccus (94.4%) and Sphingomonas (96.6-98.5%), based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. Our results demonstrate that proteobacterial anoxygenic phototrophs may be found in dry soil environments, implying desiccation resistance as yet unreported for this group. By utilizing sunlight for part of their energy needs, aerobic phototrophs can accelerate organic carbon cycling in nutrient-poor arid soils. Their effects will be especially important as global climate change enhances soil erosion and consequent nutrient loss.