Abstract
Caves are outstanding geomicrobiological, ecological, and evolutionary laboratories. They are relevant to life detection on extraterrestrial bodies because of the discovery of lava caves on several Solar System bodies (Boston et al. 1992, Léveillé and Datta 2009, Rasmussen et al. 2009). Karst landscape studies are of global importance because karst terrains, which contain caves, characterizes up to 25 % of many landscapes and carries up to 40 % of drinking water (Jones 1997). In addition to these core attributes of caves and karst landscapes, we are now discovering that the microorganisms that inhabit these ecosystems may produce secondary metabolites that can be of value to humans.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Cave Resources Office of Carlsbad Caverns National Park (Stan Allison and Dale Pate) for their support and collecting permits, and the Bureau of Land Management (Mike Bilbo and Jim Goodbar) for their support and collecting permits. This research is supported by the UNM IMSD (Initiatives to Maximize Student Diversity) program, NIH grant number: UNM-IMSD GM 060201, the American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship, and the Cave Conservancy of the Virginias. Pat Cicero, Ara Kooser, and Wayne Walker provided invaluable field assistance. John Craig provided extremely helpful nutrient analyses and other laboratory support. Yvonne Bishop provided help with pathogen culturing. UNM undergraduates: Samantha Bear, Patty Murray, and Lariza Rosas and Sandia Prep High School students: Eddie Strach and Mark Holmen assisted in this research.
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Montano, E.T., Henderson, L.O. (2013). Studies of Antibiotic Production by Cave Bacteria. In: Cheeptham, N. (eds) Cave Microbiomes: A Novel Resource for Drug Discovery. SpringerBriefs in Microbiology, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5206-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5206-5_6
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