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

Maxime Gommeaux; Mohamed Barakat; Gilles Montagnac; Richard Christen; François Guyot; Thierry Heulin

doi:10.1080/01490450903393066

Journal articles

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}

* Corresponding author

1 BVME - Biologie végétale et microbiologie environnementale - UMR7265

2 LEMIRE - Laboratoire d'Ecologie Microbienne de la Rhizosphère et d'Environnements Extrêmes

BIAM - Institut de Biosciences et Biotechnologies d'Aix-Marseille (ex-IBEB) : DRF/BIAM

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

Abstract : 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

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Environmental Sciences

Sciences of the Universe [physics] / Earth Sciences

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https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00681761
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Submitted on : Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 12:54:26 PM
Last modification on : Friday, October 22, 2021 - 11:06:02 AM

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

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

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