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. 2022 Jun 9;25(7):104556. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104556

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© 2022 The Authors

This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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FESEM images of the speleothems collected from lava tubes of Santa Cruz Island (Galapagos, Ecuador) showing microbe-mineral interactions

(A–C) Bella-M moonmilk samples depicting intertwined needle-fiber calcite (NFC) embedded in extracellular polymeric substances (open black arrows) and wrapped in coccoid-shaped cells (white arrows); (D–F) Bella-C coralloid speleothems showing a complex microbial consortium composed of bacillary forms (white arrows), chains of rod-shaped cells (black arrow) and reticulated filaments (open white arrows), embedded in EPS (open black arrows); (G–I) Amor-C speleothems displaying tangled mass of hyphae, EPS and spores of Actinobacteria-like structures (white arrows), and bacillary-shaped cells with spiny ornamentation (open white arrows); (J–L) Royal-C coralloids showing Actinobacteria-like coccoid cells with spiny ornamentation (white arrows), reticulated filaments (gray arrow) and other silicified filamentous structures (Figure 5L). In addition, imprints of microbial filaments are observed on the siliceous substrate (open black arrows).