Preliminary characterization of microbial communities in high altitude wetlands of northwestern Argentina by determining terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms.

Laguna de Pozuelos is an extensive wetland in Morthwestern Argentina at 3,600 m above sea level in the Argentinean Andes. The principal lake, placed in the central depression of endorheic basin, is rich in minerals like Cu, As, Fe, etc. It collects water from underground courses and from two main tributaries, namely Santa Catalina River to the north and Cincel River to the south. Following the dry and rainy seasons, the surface of the lake is subject to an annual contraction-expansion cycle, with increasing of salinity during evaporation period. Prokaryotes inhabitants these particular environments have been not described and a few of such places have been surveyed for microbial diversity studies. To systematically explore the underlying communities of Bacteria from the water lake of Laguna de Pozuelos wetland and Cincel River, bacterial 16S rRNA genes (rDNAs) were PCR amplified and analyzed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis. Analysis of the microbial community with T-RFLP identified a minimum of 19 operational taxonomic units (OTU). T-RF patterns derived from multiple-enzyme digestion with RsaI, HaeIII and HhaI were analyzed in order to provide a preliminary picture of the relative diversity of this complex microbial community. By the combined use of the three restriction endonucleases bacterial populations of this particular place were identified.