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Science 10 December 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5447, pp. 2141 - 2144
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5447.2141
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Reports

Geomicrobiology of Subglacial Ice Above Lake Vostok, Antarctica

John C. Priscu, 1* Edward E. Adams, 2 W. Berry Lyons, 5 Mary A. Voytek, 6 David W. Mogk, 3 Robert L. Brown, 2 Christopher P. McKay, 7 Cristina D. Takacs, 1 Kathy A. Welch, 5 Craig F. Wolf, 1 Julie D. Kirshtein, 6 Recep Avci 4

Data from ice 3590 meters below Vostok Station indicate that the ice was accreted from liquid water associated with Lake Vostok. Microbes were observed at concentrations ranging from 2.8 × 103 to 3.6 × 104 cells per milliliter; no biological incorporation of selected organic substrates or bicarbonate was detected. Bacterial 16S ribosomal DNA genes revealed low diversity in the gene population. The phylotypes were closely related to extant members of the alpha- and beta-Proteobacteria and the Actinomycetes. Extrapolation of the data from accretion ice to Lake Vostok implies that Lake Vostok may support a microbial population, despite more than 106 years of isolation from the atmosphere.

1 Department of Biological Sciences,
2 Department of Civil Engineering,
3 Department of Earth Sciences,
4 Department of Physics, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.
5 Department of Geology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.
6 U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA 20192, USA.
7 Space Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA 94035, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

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