Microbes can be found in just about any environment on Earth, including the bubbling hot springs at Yellowstone National Park. Few organisms can withstand the scalding waters, as one poor bison recently discovered. However, understanding how these microbes have survived and adapted in this harsh environment could help us comprehend how life evolved on Earth and why these hot springs are a vital part of scientific research.
A study, published in Nature Communications, analyzes three microbes collected from two different hot springs in Yellowstone National Park and reveals how they may have adapted in a low-oxygen environment and evolved to live today.
Life in Low Oxygen
For this study, researchers from Montana State University (MSU) analyzed three microbes from the park: Aquificota (Thermocrinis), Pyropristinus (Caldipriscus), and Thermoproteota (Pyrobaculum). All three of these microbes are thermophilic, meaning they thrive in high temperatures, such as the 190 degrees Fahrenheit hot springs from which they were collected.
According to researchers Bill Inskeep, a professor in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences at MSU, and Mensur Dlakic, an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology at MSU, two of the hot springs in Yellowstone, Conch Spring and Octopus Spring were selected for microbial extraction due to their geochemical similarities.
Although the study notes that Conch Spring has higher amounts of sulfide and oxygen compared to Octopus Spring, this difference enables researchers to compare the microbes under both high and low oxygen levels.
Read More: What Does a Year at Yellowstone Caldera Look Like?
Deep Breaths
With the new information gathered, researchers hope it will shed light on the evolution of life before the Great Oxidation Event, which occurred approximately 2.4 billion years ago. Before the event, our atmosphere contained only about 2 percent oxygen. Afterwards, it spiked to 20 percent.
“When oxygen started to increase in the environment, these thermophiles were likely important in the origin of microbial life,” said Inskeep, in a press release. “There was an evolution of organisms that utilized oxygen. Octopus [Spring] has more oxygen, and sure enough, there’s more aerobic organisms there. These environments have different casts of characters.”
The microbes the research team analyzed are all found within streamers that live in rapid water currents. These may resemble stringy algae or kelp plants that attach to rocks and other objects within the spring. They grow filaments that appear to “wiggle” in the water.
While all three thermophilic microbes were found in each spring, the team discovered that Octopus Spring, the one with the higher oxygen content, had a greater variety of microbes. These results show that the thermophilic microbes were able to grow and adapt in a more oxygen-rich environment.
Pristine Environment
To obtain the results, the researchers examined respiratory genes in the microbes from each spring and compared them. They found that the genes of the low-oxygen microbes from Conch Spring had become highly expressed, indicating they were more active. The microbes in the more oxygenated Octopus Spring were expressing genes that are more adapted to high oxygen levels.
“It would be very difficult to reproduce this kind of an experiment in the laboratory; imagine trying to [create] hot-water streams with just the right amounts of oxygen and sulfide,” Inskeep said in a press release. “And that’s what’s so nice about studying these environments. We can make these observations in the exact geochemical conditions that these organisms need to thrive.”
This also serves as a reminder as to why these thermal pools should be protected. In the recent incident with the bison, park officials decided not to remove the animal, as doing so could disrupt the bacterial life that lives within the hot spring. According to the USGS, damage like that could take up to a year to repair.
While the average park visitor may not think much of the microbes that dwell in the thermal pools of Yellowstone National Park, understanding them is another piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding ourselves and our evolution.
“It may seem counterintuitive to understand complex life by studying something that’s simple, but that’s really how it has to start,” Dlakic said in a press release. “You have to think back to understand where we are today.”
Read More: Yellowstone Bison Meets Tragic End at Hot Spring, Showing the Danger of Hydrothermal Features
This article is a republished version of this previously published article here.
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A graduate of UW-Whitewater, Monica Cull wrote for several organizations, including one that focused on bees and the natural world, before coming to Discover Magazine. Her current work also appears on her travel blog and Common State Magazine. Her love of science came from watching PBS shows as a kid with her mom and spending too much time binging Doctor Who.
