Extraction of Microbial 16S rRNA Gene Sequences From Hot Spring Travertine

Bruce W. Fouke, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Department of Geology, UIUC

20 January 2000

Modern and ancient microbes preserved in travertine are being genetically identified and directly linked with the terrestrial hot spring environments in which they lived using a depositional facies model incorporating aqueous and solid phases.  The Mammoth Hot Springs corridor of Yellowstone National Park contains thermal springs that are actively precipitating travertine, as well as a complete series of modern through Pleistocene travertine deposits.  Microbes and biofilms are entombed between carbonate crystals and in fluid inclusions within precipitates along spring outflows that cool from 73 to 25 degrees C along flow paths of tens of meters.  Comparison of microbial composition and crystal chemistry are being made between ancient travertine from Gardiner, MT (~19,000 to 45,000 ybp) and modern to Recent travertine at Mammoth Hot Springs (0 to ~8,000 ybp) with the intent of defining fossilization potential. The identity of living microbes is being approached using ESEM microscopy and 16S rRNA gene sequencing.