| The deep-sea hypersaline anoxic lakes represent a special type of environments different from any known ecosystems and one of the last frontiers of the undiscovered biosphere that challenges the life science today. A number of very initial attempts to characterise the indigenous microbial consortia, gained valuable and promising background information on the presence of novel and unique pro- and eukaryotic organisms in these extreme environments. Up to date, none of them have ever been isolated and obtained in pure culture, thus, their metabolic features and their role within their natural ecosystems are still unknown. MIDDLE Project will concentrate for the first time on the comprehensive molecular biodiversity study of two DHAL environments, namely Discovery (pure bischofite) and L Atalante - Urania (pure halite) as typical sites for different extreme environments (athalassic and thalassic, respectively). The main objectives and milestones of the proposed study are (i) exploration of the biodiversity of pro- and eukaryotic microorganisms thriving in deep Mediterranean hypersaline anoxic lakes on both phylogenetic and functional gene analysis levels. (ii) understanding the biogeochemical pathways that sustain DHALs microbial metabolic network systems and the possible interactions of prokaryotes with protists (iii) exploration and exploitation of the genomic richness hidden within DHALs Further development of molecular techniques like metagenome and functional genomic is foreseen in the frame of MIDDLE to get inside of astonishing DHAL genomic pool and to mine for novel biologically active products of industrial and technological importance. The application of biogeochemical, analytical, biochemical, microbiological, molecular biological studies for detailed bioinformatic characterization of DHALs microbial metabolic network is foreseen in the frame of the MIDDLE Proposal. |
