Mineral and Bacterial Diversities of Desert Sand Grains from South-East Morocco

Maxime Gommeaux (1, 2) , ​mohamed Barakat (2, 1) , Gilles Montagnac (3) , Richard Christen (4) , François Guyot (5, 6) , Thierry Heulin (2, 1)

1 BVME - Biologie végétale et microbiologie environnementale - UMR7265
2 LEMIRE - Laboratoire d'Ecologie Microbienne de la Rhizosphère et d'Environnements Extrêmes
3 LST - Laboratoire de Sciences de la Terre
4 ISBDC - Institut de signalisation, biologie du développement et cancer
5 IMPMC - Institut de minéralogie et de physique des milieux condensés
6 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Mineralogy and microbiology of sand from Merzouga (Morocco) were simultaneously characterized, with the purpose of contributing to a better understanding of the geomicrobiology of deserts. In spite of very low measured bacterial biomass, bacterial diversity on each of the five defined mineralogical classes, was found high. An original grain by grain cultivation method enabled to obtain bacterial isolates with an unusually high recovery rate. The results of this study show that the genus Arthrobacter is well adapted to this environment with a preference for grains other than the dominant mineral quartz, and that the genera Chelatococcus and Saccharotrix are strongly attached to the grains.

Keywords: arid environment; bacterial diversity; sand mineralogy

Domains: Environmental Sciences; Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Earth Sciences

Maxime Gommeaux, ​mohamed Barakat, Gilles Montagnac, Richard Christen, François Guyot, et al.. Mineral and Bacterial Diversities of Desert Sand Grains from South-East Morocco. Geomicrobiology Journal, 2010, 27 (1), pp.76-92. ⟨10.1080/01490450903393066⟩. ⟨insu-00681761⟩