Bacterial communities forming yellow biofilms in different cave types share a common core

The walls of different types of caves under diverse geological settings (limestone, gypsum and volcanic) are colonized by biofilms of different colors: white, yellow, pink, grey, green to dark brown, but only a few colored biofilms such as the white, yellow and grey ones have been extensively studied. However, an assessment among the microbial communities originating these biofilms in different lithologies is lacking. Here we compare the yellow biofilms from two caves, Covadura and C3, in the Gypsum Karst of Sorbas in Spain, with those from two Spanish limestone caves (Pindal and Santian), and four volcanic caves in Spain and Italy (Viento, Honda del Bejenado, Grotta del Santo, Grotta di Monte Corruccio). The structure of yellow biofilms in gypsum caves closely resembles that found in other Spanish and European limestone caves. However, volcanic cave biofilms exhibit greater variability in their microbial community structure and morphologies. Biofilms from gypsum, limestone and volcanic caves were characterized by the abundance of the genera Crossiella and the gammaproteobacterial wb1-P19. The uncultured Euzebyaceae were abundant in gypsum and Spanish volcanic caves, while in the limestone and Italian volcanic caves, they were rare or absent. Nitrospira was also abundant in limestone and volcanic caves, but not in gypsum caves. Due to the abundances of Crossiella, gammaproteobacterial wb1-P19, and uncultured Euzebyaceae, in many different ecosystems, not only in caves, as recently reported, understanding the functional diversity in which these lineages are involved seems critical. Although we have studied a limited number of yellow biofilms from caves in Spain and Italy, data from other caves in USA and Russia also point out the existence of a similarity among the most abundant members composing the structure of yellow biofilms, suggesting that they share a common core.