I'm happy to share our latest preprint about the unique microbial community of the deep oligotrophic groundwater.
@Dopsongrp @Stebe69 @_Emma_Bell @MetaMoritz @simone_dome et al. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.24.111179v1

Deep continental subsurface is an extensive habitat containing ~ 3X10^29 prokaryotic cells
1/60th of this number thrive in Groundwater (~ 5X10^27) => mind blowing no?
Flemming http://et.al . @NatureRevMicro 2018
Thread 1/9

What is deep oligotrophic groundwater like?
-Long residence time
-Minimum nutrient availability
-Restricted reducing agent availability
-Anaerobic
-Diluted microbial community
2/9

We are “curiouser and curiouser” about eco-evolutionary processes in this wonderland where microbes are the biome in charge! Yes, I am quoting Alice in wonderland! :)

3/9

The Äspö HRL @SKB_nyheter and Olkiluoto drillholes @Posiva_fi are very special! They provide access to disconnected fracture fluids (ca. 170 to 500 mbsl) running through a similar granite/granodiorite lithology. Allowing us to ask eco-evolutionary questions!
4/9

We have developed a big dataset of microbial genomes from the deep biosphere. We call this community resource FSGD (Fennoscandian Shield Genomic Database) @scilifelab @UPPMAX @jgi
Available for download here: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12170313.v1 via @figshare
5/9

What we find? A huge phylogenetic diversity of Bacteria and Archaea (lines in red) and 158 genome clusters that are prevalent in both locations! A common core microbiome of deep oligotrophic groundwaters!

Want to know more about their metabolism? Check out our preprint! I’m just putting a hint here, but there is more!
7/9

We show that instead of a lifestyle where microbes predominantly invest in functions related to maintenance and survival, an episodic and cooperative lifestyle ensures the subsistence of the deep groundwater microbiome. For this, we suggest the name “halt and catch fire”
8/9

“Halt and Catch Fire” was originally an idiom, referring to anything one had done to a computer cause the CPU to fry itself. Later, several developers created HCF Opcode that forced the system to halt (WO damaging hardware) and it would require a restart to continue working.
9/9