A comprehensive analysis of the biodiversity in the snow/ice samples will be carried out by using molecular biology (cultivation-independent) techniques combined to bioinformatics tools. Attention will be given to the genetic diversity of bacteria, cyanobacteria and fungi in the surrounding areas of Concordia station.

The microbial community structure and genetic diversity will be characterized by amplification of ribosomal genes and metagenomics assay.

This approach will allow to : i) determine the microbial diversity outside the Concordia station, (ii) evaluate the influence on the microbial diversity of the environmental conditions, (iii) assess the anthropogenic impact from the Concordia station on the pristine Antarctic environment, and (iv) model the microbial dynamics.

Results will provide new insights into the Antarctic microbial biodiversity within the vicinity of the Concordia Station, and, by integrating the results with microclimatic data, will contribute to a better understanding of the structure and dynamics of the microbial communities with implications when monitoring and predicting climate change effects.

This proposal will contribute to the use of results of projects aimed at assessing the role of aerial dispersal in shaping the patterns of biodiversity in Antarctica. In addition, it will contribute to achieve an integrated knowledge of the microbial diversity in Antarctica, being complementary for investigated areas and colonized substrata to the proposed proposals MDV-MICRO (PI S. Ventura), AMunDsEN (PI L. Selbmann) e PermEco (PI M. Guglielmin).

Finally, given that Earth’s frozen polar regions are considered analogues of near-surface environments of Mars and of the Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, the results of this proposal will be relevant for astrobiology research programs aimed at searching life beyond Earth

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE DATA ORIGIN AND HOW IT GETS TRANSFORMED ALONG THE WAY FROM THE INSTRUMENT TO THE DATABASE.

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