Cristina Dorador

• Dr. rer. nat
• Professor (Associate) at University of Antofagasta

This study characterizes the ecophysiological responses and growth dynamics of Nitzschia palea isolated from Salar de Huasco, Chile, a high-altitude wetland located at 3800 m above sea level. The culture was maintained at 17°C under cool-white fluorescent light with a 14:10 h light/dark photocycle and a photon flux of 50 μmol photons m−2 s−1. The d...

Although a lack of diversity in genetic studies is an acknowledged obstacle for personalized medicine and precision public health, Latin American populations remain particularly understudied despite their heterogeneity and mixed ancestry. This gap extends to COVID-19 despite its variability in susceptibility and clinical course, where ethnic backgr...

The rivers of the Central Pacific extend from the coastal areas of southern Peru to northern Chile (11°58′S–31°37′S). The rivers originate in the Andes and flow into the Pacific Ocean. They are short, with fast-flowing waters. This chapter provides a detailed description of four basins in northern Chile: Loa, Huasco, Elqui, and Choapa rivers, which...

Thermophilic microorganisms possess several adaptations to thrive in high temperature, which is reflected as biosynthesis of proteins and thermostable molecules, isolation and culture represent a great methodological challenge, therefore High throughput sequencing enables screening of the whole bacterial genome for functional potential, providing r...

Microbial community assembly results from the interaction between biotic and abiotic factors. However, environmental selection is thought to predominantly shape communities in extreme ecosystems. Salar de Huasco, situated in the high-altitude Andean Altiplano, represents a poly-extreme ecosystem displaying spatial gradients of physicochemical condi...

The Holobiont theory is more than eighty years old, while the importance of microbial communities for plant holobionts was already identified by Lorenz Hiltner more than a century ago. Both concepts are strongly supported by results from the new field of microbiome research. Here, we present ecological and genetic features of the plant holobiont th...

Abstract Aim To assess the effectiveness of Bacillus subtilis strain LN8B as a bio-collector for recovering pyrite (Py) and chalcopyrite (CPy) in both seawater (Sw) and deionized water (Dw), and to explore the underlying adhesion mechanism in these bioflotation experiments. Materials and methods The bioflotation test utilized B. subtilis strain LN...

PURPOSE: Molecular mechanisms underlying COVID-19 susceptibility and severity are still poorly understood. The presence of genetic risk factors associated with ethnic background has been suggested, highlighting non-European ancestry as a risk factor for hospitalization in the United States. However, the representation of non-European populations in...

Microbial community assembly results from the interaction between biotic and abiotic factors. However, environmental selection is thought to predominantly shape communities in extreme ecosystems. Salar de Huasco, situated in the high altitude Andean Altiplano, represents a poly-extreme ecosystem displaying spatial gradients of physicochemical condi...

Gregarine apicomplexans, a group of single celled organisms, inhabit the extracellular spaces of most invertebrate species. The nature of the gregarine-host interactions is not yet fully resolved, mutualistic, commensal and parasitic life forms have been recorded. In the extreme arid environment of the Atacama Desert, only a few groups of invertebr...

At particular stages during their life cycles, fungi use multiple strategies to form specialized structures to survive unfavorable environmental conditions. These strategies encompass sporulation, as well as cell-wall melanization, multicellular tissue formation or even dimorphism. The resulting structures are not only used to disperse to other env...

Taxonomic and functional microbial communities may respond differently to anthropogenic coastal impacts, but ecological quality monitoring assessments using environmental DNA and RNA (eDNA/eRNA) in response to pollution are poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated the utility of the co-occurrence network approach’s to comprehensivel...

Investigating the role of host genetic factors in COVID-19 severity and susceptibility can inform our understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms that influence adverse outcomes and drug development. Here we present a second updated genome-wide association study (GWAS) on COVID-19 severity and infection susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 from t...

Operations in copper sulfide flotation plants (CSFP) are complex and governed by several variables such as available technologies, reagents, and environmental conditions. However, few investigations are related to studying the microbial communities. These aspects provide a reason to compare the bacterial communities of two CSFP operated with freshw...

Resistant cells, such as spores are a vital part of the life cycle of fungi with essential roles in ecology and reproduction. These structures help fungi not only to disperse to other environments but also to survive long periods of time awaiting favorable growth conditions. As a result, fungal spores and resistant cells are part of the microbial s...

The virus-to-prokaryote ratio (VPR) has been used in many ecosystems to study the relationship between viruses and their hosts. While high VPR values indicate a high rate of prokaryotes’ cell lysis, low values are interpreted as a decrease in or absence of viral activity. Salar de Huasco is a high-altitude wetland characterized by a rich microbial...

Polyethylene (PE) is one of the most recalcitrant carbon-based synthetic materials produced and, currently, the most ubiquitous plastic pollutant found in nature. Over time, combined abiotic and biotic processes are thought to eventually breakdown PE. Despite limited evidence of biological PE degradation and speculation that hydrocarbon-degrading b...

Arsenopyrite is the most abundant arsenic-bearing sulfide mineral in the lithosphere, usually associated with sulfide gold ores. The recovery of this highly valuable metal is associated with the release of large quantities of soluble arsenic. One way to mitigate the effects of high concentrations of arsenic in solution is to immobilize it as scorod...

Biologists have long pondered the extreme limits of life on Earth, including the maximum elevation at which species can live and reproduce. Here we review evidence of a self-sustaining population of mice at an elevation that exceeds that of all previously reported for mammals. Five expeditions over 10 years to Volcán Llullaillaco on the Argentina/C...

The production of specialized resting cells is a remarkable strategy developed by several organisms to survive unfavorable environmental conditions. Spores are specialized resting cells that are characterized by low to absent metabolic activity and higher resistance. Spore-like cells are known from multiple groups of bacteria, which can form spores...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopment disorder resulting from different etiological factors, both genetic and/or environmental. These factors can lead to abnormal neuronal development on dendrite and synaptic function at the central nervous system. Recent studies have shown that a subset of ASD patients display increase...

The development of technologies to slow climate change has been identified as a global imperative. Nonetheless, such 'green' technologies can potentially have negative impacts on biodiversity. We explored how climate change and the mining of lithium for green technologies influence surface water availability, primary productivity and the abundance...

Strain Llam7 T was isolated from microbial mat samples from the hypersaline lake Salar de Llamará, located in Taracapá region in the hyper-arid core of the Atacama Desert (Chile). Phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genomic traits were studied. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences assigned the strain to the family Micromonosporaceae wi...

This article emerges from a transdisciplinary collaboration between a micro-biologist and an anthropologist deeply concerned with the protection of endangered salares (saltpans) in northern Chile. Our aim is to establish the concept of “micro-disaster” as a tool for examining how extractivism is disrupting salares and their “deep-time” microbial ec...

• High elevation lakes are extreme ecosystems and serve as sentinels of various global changes. • An expedition to Volcán Llullaillaco in 1996 discovered an unstudied high‐elevation lake (6,170 m a.s.l.) that probably was formed as a result of the past eruptive events or climatic processes such as glacial retreat in the lake basin. • This article d...

Mejillones Bay is a coastal ecosystem situated in an oxygen-deficient upwelling area impacted by mining activities in the coastal desert region of northern Chile, where conspicuous microbial life develops in the sediments. Herein, heavy metal(loid)s (HMs) such as Cu, Pb, As, Zn, Al, Fe, Cd, Mo, Ni and V as well as benthic microbial communities were...

This study investigates the combined hydrogen deuterium and triple oxygen isotope hydrology of the Salar del Huasco, an endorheic salt flat with shallow lakes at its centre that is located on the Altiplano Plateau, N Chile. This lacustrine system is hydrologically dynamic and complex because it receives inflow from multiple surface and groundwater...

The landscapes of high-altitude wetland ecosystems are characterized by different kinds of aquatic sites, including ponds holding conspicuous microbial life. Here, we examined a representative pond of the wetland landscape for dynamics of greenhouse gases, and their association with other relevant biogeochemical conditions including diel shifts of...

The Loa River is the only perennial artery that crosses the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It plays an important role in the ecological and economic development of the most water-stressed region, revealing the impact of the mining industry, which exacerbate regional water shortages for many organisms and ecological processes. Despite this, the r...

The use of microorganisms in mining processes is a technology widely employed around the world. Leaching bacteria are characterized by having resistance mechanisms for several metals found in their acidic environments, some of which have been partially described in the Acidithiobacillus genus (mainly on ferrooxidans species). However, the response...

Salar de Huasco is a wetland in the Andes mountains, located 3800 m above sea level at the Chilean Altiplano. Here we present a study aimed at characterizing the viral fraction and the microbial communities through metagenomic analysis. Two ponds (H0 and H3) were examined in November 2015. Water samples were processed using tangential flow filtrati...

The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major cause of nosocomial infections, and has been categorised by the World Health Organisation as a “Priority 1: Critical” target for research and development of novel antibiotics owing to its intrinsic multi-resistance and ability to acquire novel resistance mechanisms. One strategy for disco...

Triple oxygen isotope measurements are a novel and promising tool in geochemical and hydrological research. This study investigates the combined hydrogen-deuterium and triple oxygen isotope hydrology at the Salar del Huasco, a highly dynamic salt lake system located on the Altiplano Plateau, N-Chile. The region has a semiarid climate that shows str...

Salar de Huasco is a high-altitude (3800 m a.s.l.) polyextreme aquatic environment located in the Chilean Altiplano. This chapter highlights over 15 years of microbial ecology research conducted in this fascinating system covering microbial diversity, microbial adaptation to extreme conditions, and the role of microbes in biogeochemical cycles, inc...

Pristine marine environments are highly oligotrophic ecosystems populated by well-established specialised microbial communities. Nevertheless, during oil spills, low-abundant hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria bloom and rapidly prevail over the marine microbiota. The genus Alcanivorax is one of the most abundant and well-studied organisms for oil degrada...

Hydrothermal systems are ideal to understand how microbial communities cope with challenging conditions. Lirima, our study site, is a polyextreme, high-altitude, hydrothermal ecosystem located in the Chilean Andean highlands. Herein, we analyze the benthic communities of three nearby springs in a gradient of temperature (42–72 °C represented by sta...

The Atacama Desert is one of the oldest and driest places on Earth. In the last decade, microbial richness and diversity has been acknowledged as an important biological resource of this region. Owing to the value of the microbial diversity apparent in potential biotechnology applications and conservation purposes, it is necessary to catalogue thes...

Resumen ejecutivo Los ecosistemas de agua dulce o humedales presentan una enorme diversidad en Chile, desde bofedales, vegas y salares en el norte a bosques pantanosos o hualves, ñadis y turberas en el sur, incluyendo lagos, lagunas, pantanos, ríos, esteros y arroyos, entre otros. Todos ellos tienen en común contar con un cuerpo de agua permanente...

Considering that most industrial processes are carried out under harsh physicochemical conditions which would inactivate enzymes from commonly isolated mesophilic organisms, current studies are geared towards the identification of extremophilic microorganisms producing enzymes resistant to extreme salt concentrations, temperature and pH. Among the...

Over the last decade the Atacama Desert has become one of the most studied extremobiosphere biomes for the microbial bioprospection focused on novel actinobacterial species. Many of the habitats found in Atacama Desert, including those defined as hyper-arid and -saline have demonstrated a dominance of actinobacteria, of which many have been the sou...

Microbial life inhabiting hypersaline environments belong to a limited group of extremophile or extremotolerant taxa. Natural or artificial hypersaline environments are not limited to high concentrations of NaCl, and under such conditions, specific adaptation mechanisms are necessary to permit microbial survival and growth. Argentina, Bolivia, and...

A polyphasic approach was used for evaluating the taxonomic status of strain HST21T isolated from Salar de Huasco in the Atacama Desert. The results of 16S rRNA gene and multilocus sequence phylogenetic analyses assigned strain HST21T to the genus Streptomyceswith Streptomyces albidochromogenes DSM 41800Tand Streptomyces flavidovirens DSM 40150T as...

Our understanding of the icy-habitat microbiome is likely limited by a lack of reliable data on microorganisms inhabiting underground ice that has accumulated inside caves. To characterize how environmental variation impacts cave ice microbial community structure, we determined the composition of total and potentially active bacterial communities a...

Streptomyces strain HST28T isolated from the Salar de Huasco, an athalassohaline and poly-extreme high altitude saline wetland located in northern Chile, was the subject of a polyphasic taxonomic study. Strain HST28T showed morphological and chemotaxonomic features in line with its classification in the genus Streptomyces. Optimal growth of strain...

Alcanivorax is an important member of the hydrocarbonoclastic group known for using alkanes and other related compound as their preferred carbon source. Here we report the genomic characteristics of Alcanivorax sp. 24 isolated from plastic marine debris. Its 4,765,873 bp genome, containing 4239 coding sequences, revealed the presence of all genomic...

Salar de Huasco at the Chilean Altiplano of the Atacama Desert is considered a polyextreme environment, where solar radiation, salinity and aridity are extremely high and occur simultaneously. In this study, a total of 76 bacterial isolates were discovered from soil samples collected at two different sites in the east shoreline of Salar de Huasco,...

Among the Microbacteriaceae the species of Subtercola and Agreia form closely associated clusters. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated three major phylogenetic branches of these species. One of these branches contains the two psychrophilic species Subtercola frigoramans and Subtercola vilae, together with a larger number of isolates from various col...

Species of the genus Nostoc (Cyanobacteria) can form large colonies of up to several centimeters in diameter that may represent a unique habitat for bacteria in freshwaters. Bacteria inside the colony are probably segregated from the surrounding water and largely dependent on the metabolism of this primary producer. However, the existence of a spec...

Poly-extreme terrestrial habitats are often used as analogs to extra-terrestrial environments. Understanding the adaptive strategies allowing bacteria to thrive and survive under these conditions could help in our quest for extra-terrestrial planets suitable for life and understanding how life evolved in the harsh early earth conditions. A prime ex...

Nieves penitentes are pinnacle-shaped ice structures found at high elevations in the dry Andes. Here we report, using molecular and microscopic approaches, the first description of snow algae communities inhabiting penitente ice at 5,277 m a.s.l., demonstrating a new habitat for snow algae in one of the most extreme environments on Earth. Red ice p...

Salar de Atacama is one of the largest global reservoirs of natural lithium brines (mean lithium concentration = 1,500 ppm), enabling Chile to be a leading producer of lithium products. This large salar (3,000 km²), located in the Atacama Desert at 2,300 m above sea level, is dominated by microorganisms; however, little is known about the microbes...

The world’s largest ice block preserved in a cave, the ice deposit in Scărişoara Cave, is highly susceptible of revealing valuable paleoclimatic information. This presentation is the first one to provide, for that site, data concerning the ice chemical composition. The considered data were derived by chemical analysis of 22 samples collected from a...

Active Microbiome, viruses, nutrients, top down and bottom up controls, wetland in Chile.

The aim of this study was to understand the spatial distribution of microbial communities (18S and 16S rRNA genes) across one of the harshest terrestrial landscapes on Earth. We carried out Illumina sequencing using samples from two expeditions to the high slopes (up to 6050 m.a.s.l.) of Volcán Socompa and Llullaillaco to describe the microbial com...

The Salar de Huasco is an evaporitic basin located in the Chilean Altiplano, which presents extreme environmental conditions for life, i.e. high altitude (3800 m.a.s.l.), negative water balance, a wide salinity range, high daily temperature changes and the occurrence of the highest registered solar radiation on the planet (> 1200 W m⁻²). This ecosy...

Northern Chile harbors different bioclimatic zones including hyper-arid and arid ecosystems and hotspots of microbial life, such as high altitude wetlands, which may contribute differentially to greenhouse gases (GHG) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). In this study, we explored ground level GHG distribution and th...

The geological, hydrological and microbiological features of the Salar de Atacama, the most extensive evaporitic sedimentary basin in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, have been extensively studied. In contrast, relatively little attention has been paid to the composition and roles of microbial communities in hypersaline lakes which are a uniqu...

Salar de Huasco is a high‐altitude wetland characterized by a highly diverse microbial life adapted to extreme climatic and environmental conditions. Our study aims to determine active microbial community structure changes within different aquatic sites and its relationship with environmental factors and viruses as potential drivers of diversificat...

A novel actinobacterium, strain DB165T, was isolated from cold waters of Llullaillaco Volcano Lake (6170 m asl) in Chile. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences identified strain DB165T as belonging to the genus Subtercola in the family Microbacteriaceae, sharing 97.4% of sequence similarity with Subtercola frigoramans DSM 13057T, 9...

This brief introduction is intended to orientate the reader with respect to the principal environmental and historical features of the Atacama Desert, the oldest and continuously driest non-polar temperate desert on Earth. Exploration of its microbiology is relatively recent but both fundamental and applied research activities have grown dramatical...

Chile is the leading producer of copper worldwide and its richest mineral deposits are found in the Antofagasta Region of northern Chile. Mining activities have significantly increased income and employment in the region; however, there has been little assessment of the resulting environmental impacts to residents. The port of Antofagasta, located...

Tables as shown in the manuscript. Tables related to the Antofagasta dust, including: Dust sites, Methodologies, Statistics, Geoaccumulation index, Enrichment factor, Hazard index, Bioaccesibility and City dust.

Raw data. This table contains data of Antofagasta dust, rocks and weathering products of rocks of Antofagasta, and bioaccesibility of Antofagasta dust.

High altitude wetland holds freshwater springs, evaporitic ponds and lagoon with variable salinity and nutrients, potentially influencing the ecology of nitrifying communities. In this study, nitrifying microorganisms in Salar de Huasco (Chile) were surveyed to determine bacterial and archaeal contribution to ammonium (AO), nitrite oxidation (NO),...

Supplementary Information

High-elevation lakes in the tropics are subject to extreme environmental fluctuations and microbes may harbour a unique genomic repertoire, but their composition and diversity are largely unknown. Here we compared the planktonic bacterial community composition (BCC) and diversity of three tropical lakes located in the high Andean plateau (≥4400 m a...

Supplementary data are available at FEMSEC online.

Long-established and widespread mining activities in the Northern Atacama Region of Chile have historically impacted the environment. Most notably, the Potrerillos and El Salvador mines, until 1976, were responsible for dumping over 150 ∙ 106 tons of tailings into the El Salado River, discharging directly into the bay of Chañaral on the coast. Wate...

Relatively little is known about the microbial communities present in natural environments that meet physico-chemical conditions for the development of potential leaching microorganisms such as thermal ecosystems from the Chilean Altiplano. Thermophilic leaching enrichments were obtained and identified from a high altitude solfataric pound in Lirim...

Here, we review the current state of knowledge concerning high-elevation members of the extremophilic Cryptococcus albidus clade (now classified as the genus Naganishia). These fungi dominate eukaryotic microbial communities across the highest elevation, soil-like material (tephra) on volcanoes such as Llullaillaco, Socompa, and Saírecabur in the A...

Salar de Huasco, defined as a polyextreme environment, is a high altitude saline wetland in the Chilean Altiplano (3800 m.a.s.l.), permanently exposed to the highest solar radiation doses registered in the world. We present here the first comparative proteomics study of a photoheterotrophic bacterium, Rhodobacter sp., isolated from this remote and...