Zodletone Mountain | |
---|---|
Highest point | |
Elevation | 499 m (1,637 ft) (236.22 ft over 1400.92 ft surrounding area) |
Isolation | 4.4 km → Bally Mountain |
Coordinates | 34°59′44″N98°41′20″W / 34.9956156°N 98.6889528°W |
Geography | |
Kiowa County, Oklahoma, United States | |
Parent range | Slick Hills Range |
Zodletone Mountain (with spelling variant Zadletone Mountain, occasionally also called Mount Zodletone) is a mountain in the United States. [1] It is located in eastern Kiowa County just west of neighboring Caddo County in the southwestern part of the state of Oklahoma (about 120 miles from Oklahoma City). [2] [3] On the northern slope of the mountain [4] is the sulfide-rich and strictly anaerobic artesian Zodletone Spring with a National Science Foundation (NSF) microbial observatory.
Zodletone Mountain rises approximately 500 meters (or 1640 feet) above sea level [3] and 75 meters (or 229 feet) above the surrounding terrain. [5] [1] [A 1] At its base, the mountain is approximately 1.9 kilometers (or 1.18 miles) wide. [A 2] Located in the Anadarko Basin, [6] the land surrounding Zodletone Mountain is predominantly flat. [A 3] As a result, the mountain is a prominent feature in the landscape. It is nearly entirely encircled by grassland [7] and several lakes are situated in the region. [4] [A 4] Zodletone Mountain is the northernmost link of the Slick Hills Range. [5] The highest point in the area is Bally Mountain, which stands at 1866.8 feet above sea level and is located 2.73 miles south of Mount Zodletone. [A 5] The population density of Zodletone Mountain is very low, with only about 2 inhabitants per square kilometer (247.105 acres). [8] [9] The ZIP Code delivery area is OK 73062. The nearest major city, Carnegie, is located 8.88 miles northeast of Zodletone Mountain. [9]
The climate in this region is humid and subtropical, [10] [11] with an average temperature of 18°C/64.4°F. The hottest month is July, with 32°C/89.6°F average, while the coldest is January, with an average temperature of 2°C/35.6°F. [12] The average annual rainfall is 783 millimeters/30.826 inches, with the wettest month being April, with 104 millimeters/4.094 inches of rain, and the driest being January, with only 25 millimeters/0.984-inch. [13]
Follow Oklahoma 58 south of Carnegie for 6.83 miles. Then, turn west on a dirt road for 2.98 miles and continue south for about half a mile until you reach a white two-story farmhouse to obtain a visitor's permit (as of 1988). [5]
Located on the northern slope of Mount Zodletone, the Zodletone Spring is an artesian spring that features a National Science Foundation (NSF) microbial observatory. [6] [2] [14] First described by Havens in 1983, [6] the spring is a sulfide-rich and strictly anaerobic hydrocarbon seep that operates at low temperatures. [2] The spring discharges approximately 2.11 gallons per minute over a distance of about 22 yards, [15] where the water flows north over Stinking Creek [16] [17] into nearby Saddle Mountain Creek. [18] [4] The spring is a closed area of approximately 1 square meter filled with biomass and soft sediments to a depth of at least 6 inches. [17] The spring water has a sulfide content of 8–10 mmol/L [19] [20] and contains 1.0–1.5 mmol of zero valent sulfur. [17] The salinity, measured by the concentration of sodium chloride, is around 0.7–1.0%, [15] which is significantly less than seawater (approximately 3.5%). These measurements, in the mats formed by the microbes, increase to 2–5%, and in the soil they can reach up to 25–30% at a depth of 2 in and 12 in, respectively. [15] The hydrocarbons detected in high concentrations are short-chain alkanes, such as methane, ethane, and propane. [15]
Since 2001, a team of scientists from the University of Oklahoma (OU) and Oklahoma State University (OSU) has been researching the microbial community (microbiome) at the Zodletone spring. [2]
This spring is an intriguing research site for geologists and environmental microbiologists due to a variety of factors. The high sulfide and methane content of the spring water creates a diverse microbial mat environment along its course down the mountain, displaying unique geochemical and microbial processes. [21] [22]
A list of the minerals encountered there can be found at mindat.org. [11] This environment shares many similarities with the conditions that existed on Earth almost two billion years ago when there was no oxygen in the atmosphere, and methane was abundant. Frequent sulfur reactions were likely to have occurred. Therefore, the spring and spring stream ecosystem provides an opportunity to study the biology and geochemistry of early Earth. [2] [23] Therefore, the investigations focus on the role of microorganisms, particularly bacteria and archaea, in hydrocarbon (petroleum) and sulfur metabolism, as well as micro-eukaryotes [2] (eukaryotic microbes such as protists and microfungi).
Both known and new groups of bacteria were identified in the sample. These groups include Chlorobia (green sulfur bacteria), Chloroflexi (green non-sulfur bacteria), [18] Planctomycetes (with isolate Zi62), [24] [25] Cyanobacteria (specifically order Oscillatoria), [6] Saccharibacteria (formerly known as TM7, here with extremely high diversity), [26] Parcubacteria (also known as OD1, [27] with isolate ZFos45e05), [28] [17] the Microgenomates group (OP11), [29] and Absconditabacteria [30] (SR1). [2] In addition, new bacterial phyla, Candidate division CSSED10-310 (provisional name), with its species Candidate division CSSED10-310 bacterium, [31] [32] and Ca. Krumholzibacteriota, with its species Ca. K. zodletonense, [33] were found in the spring.
Among the Archaea, Crenarchaeota [15] were found in addition to an unexpected occurrence of Halobacteria (Euryarchaeota) in several places in spring, despite the fact that the water salinity is too low for them [2] [20] (although not in the mats and soil, as seen above). The following were identified: [2]
Another archaeal group found at Zodleton Spring is that of the Asgard archaea, including: [32]
Asgard archaea, particularly the Heimdall archaea, are considered potential candidates for illustrating the origin in the evolution of complex cellular organisms, or eukaryotes, in a process known as eukaryogenesis.
The study unequivocally identified several protist groups, such as Cercozoa, Alveolata, and Stramenopile, among the microbial eukaryotes. [2] The majority of the stramenopiles were classified as either belonging to the genus Cafeteria (order Bicosoecida) or the order Labyrinthulida (mucilages), despite their previous association with marine habitats. [16] [19]
The majority of the fungal sequences observed belong to ascomycete yeasts of the Saccharomycetales order or are closely related to basidiomycete yeasts from the Tremellales order. In addition, they found sequences from one of the Ustilaginomycetes (fire fungi) and a new group of fungi provisionally designated as LKM (also known as Zeuk1), named after the strain LKM11 from Lac Pavin (France). [43] [19] [16]
As of mid-January 2023, research on the Viruses in the Zodletone Spring ecosystem is still limited. However, the RNA sequence EMS013, which possibly belongs to the genus Cystovirus , along with two other examples, suggest the presence of RNA bacteriophages. [44] The presence of protists from the genus ’’Cafeteria’’ suggests the possibility of the presence of accompanying viruses, such as the DNA giant virus Cafeteria roenbergensis virus’’ (CroV).
The Thermoproteota are prokaryotes that have been classified as a phylum of the domain Archaea. Initially, the Thermoproteota were thought to be sulfur-dependent extremophiles but recent studies have identified characteristic Thermoproteota environmental rRNA indicating the organisms may be the most abundant archaea in the marine environment. Originally, they were separated from the other archaea based on rRNA sequences; other physiological features, such as lack of histones, have supported this division, although some crenarchaea were found to have histones. Until 2005 all cultured Thermoproteota had been thermophilic or hyperthermophilic organisms, some of which have the ability to grow at up to 113 °C. These organisms stain Gram negative and are morphologically diverse, having rod, cocci, filamentous and oddly-shaped cells. Recent evidence shows that some members of the Thermoproteota are methanogens.
The Korarchaeota is a proposed phylum within the Archaea. The name is derived from the Greek noun koros or kore, meaning young man or young woman, and the Greek adjective archaios which means ancient. They are also known as Xenarchaeota. The name is equivalent to Candidatus Korarchaeota, and they go by the name Xenarchaeota or Xenarchaea as well.
Euryarchaeota is a kingdom of archaea. Euryarchaeota are highly diverse and include methanogens, which produce methane and are often found in intestines; halobacteria, which survive extreme concentrations of salt; and some extremely thermophilic aerobes and anaerobes, which generally live at temperatures between 41 and 122 °C. They are separated from the other archaeans based mainly on rRNA sequences and their unique DNA polymerase.
Ferroglobus is a genus of the Archaeoglobaceae.
Halobacteriales are an order of the Halobacteria, found in water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. They are also called halophiles, though this name is also used for other organisms which live in somewhat less concentrated salt water. They are common in most environments where large amounts of salt, moisture, and organic material are available. Large blooms appear reddish, from the pigment bacteriorhodopsin. This pigment is used to absorb light, which provides energy to create ATP. Halobacteria also possess a second pigment, halorhodopsin, which pumps in chloride ions in response to photons, creating a voltage gradient and assisting in the production of energy from light. The process is unrelated to other forms of photosynthesis involving electron transport; however, and halobacteria are incapable of fixing carbon from carbon dioxide.
Ignicoccus is a genus of hyperthermophillic Archaea living in marine hydrothermal vents. They were discovered in samples taken at the Kolbeinsey Ridge north of Iceland, as well as at the East Pacific Rise in 2000.
Pyrobaculum is a genus of the Thermoproteaceae.
In taxonomy, Thermococcus is a genus of thermophilic Archaea in the family the Thermococcaceae.
Haladaptatus is a genus of halophilic archaea in the family of Halobacteriaceae. The members of Haladaptatus thrive in environments with salt concentrations approaching saturation
The Nitrososphaerota are a phylum of the Archaea proposed in 2008 after the genome of Cenarchaeum symbiosum was sequenced and found to differ significantly from other members of the hyperthermophilic phylum Thermoproteota. Three described species in addition to C. symbiosum are Nitrosopumilus maritimus, Nitrososphaera viennensis, and Nitrososphaera gargensis. The phylum was proposed in 2008 based on phylogenetic data, such as the sequences of these organisms' ribosomal RNA genes, and the presence of a form of type I topoisomerase that was previously thought to be unique to the eukaryotes. This assignment was confirmed by further analysis published in 2010 that examined the genomes of the ammonia-oxidizing archaea Nitrosopumilus maritimus and Nitrososphaera gargensis, concluding that these species form a distinct lineage that includes Cenarchaeum symbiosum. The lipid crenarchaeol has been found only in Nitrososphaerota, making it a potential biomarker for the phylum. Most organisms of this lineage thus far identified are chemolithoautotrophic ammonia-oxidizers and may play important roles in biogeochemical cycles, such as the nitrogen cycle and the carbon cycle. Metagenomic sequencing indicates that they constitute ~1% of the sea surface metagenome across many sites.
Bacterial phyla constitute the major lineages of the domain Bacteria. While the exact definition of a bacterial phylum is debated, a popular definition is that a bacterial phylum is a monophyletic lineage of bacteria whose 16S rRNA genes share a pairwise sequence identity of ~75% or less with those of the members of other bacterial phyla.
Thermococcus kodakarensis is a species of thermophilic archaea. The type strain T. kodakarensis KOD1 is one of the best-studied members of the genus.
Sulfolobus metallicus is a coccoid shaped thermophilic archaeon. It is a strict chemolithoautotroph gaining energy by oxidation of sulphur and sulphidic ores into sulfuric acid. Its type strain is Kra 23. It has many uses that take advantage of its ability to grow on metal media under acidic and hot environments.
Saccharolobus solfataricus is a species of thermophilic archaeon. It was transferred from the genus Sulfolobus to the new genus Saccharolobus with the description of Saccharolobus caldissimus in 2018.
The candidate division SR1 and gracilibacteria code is used in two groups of uncultivated bacteria found in marine and fresh-water environments and in the intestines and oral cavities of mammals among others. The difference to the standard and the bacterial code is that UGA represents an additional glycine codon and does not code for termination. A survey of many genomes with the codon assignment software Codetta, analyzed through the GTDB taxonomy system shows that this genetic code is limited to the Patescibacteria order BD1-5, not what are now termed Gracilibacteria, and that the SR1 genome assembly GCA_000350285.1 for which the table 25 code was originally defined is actually using the Absconditibacterales genetic code and has the associated three special recoding tRNAs. Thus this code may now be better named the "BD1-5 code".
Haladaptatus paucihalophilus is a halophilic archaeal species, originally isolated from a spring in Oklahoma. It uses a new pathway to synthesize glycine, and contains unique physiological features for osmoadaptation.
Acidilobus saccharovorans is a thermoacidophilic species of anaerobic archaea. The species was originally described in 2009 after being isolated from hot springs in Kamchatka.
Haloferax sulfurifontis is a species of archaea in the family Haloferacaceae.
Metallosphaera hakonensis is a gram-negative, thermoacidophilic archaea discovered in the hot springs of Hakone National Park, Kanagawa, Japan.
Blastopirellula marina, a member of the phylum Planctomycetota, is a halotolerant bacterium inhabiting aquatic environments. B. marina was determined to be a new species by utilizing 16s rRNA sequence analysis.