Genome-resolved metagenomics and evolutionary analysis reveal conserved metabolic adaptations in extremophile communities from a copper mining tailing
Our study provides a metagenome-wide evolutionary analysis of mining MAGs, demonstrating that microbial communities in copper tailings are highly specialized, with conserved metabolic pathways under strong purifying selection. At the same time, the recovery of previously unclassified species of extremophiles expands the known biodiversity of mining ecosystems. These findings emphasise the challenges of leveraging these communities for biotechnological applications, such as biomining, due to their evolutionary constraints.
Authors
- Emilio Vilches (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4387-9313)
- Alex Di Genova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3120-9283)
- Mauricio Latorre (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4746-8690)
- Vinicius Maracaja‐Coutinho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8873-9381)
- Jorge B. Torres (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0717-6493)
- Valentina Parra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0080-6472)
- Angélica Reyes-Jara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5354-4322)
- Gabriel Gálvez
- Lorena Pizarro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5954-5839)
- Jaime Villacampa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5414-4067)
- Moises A. Rojas
- Gladis Serrano
Institutions
- Universidad Mayor (CL)
- Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública (BR)
- Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases (CL)
- University of O'Higgins (CL)
- Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (BR)
- University of Chile (CL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Environmental Microbiome
- Published
- 2025-12-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s40793-025-00811-5
- Primary Topic
- Metal Extraction and Bioleaching
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia
- Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo