Реферат: The geomicrobiology of caves is an interdisciplinary field that is gaining in prominence around the world. As one of the main targets of geomicrobiology, the Archaea Domain
represents a considerable fraction of the prokaryotic world in marine and terrestrial ecosystems, as well as in caves. To date, no research projects with a specific focus on this Domain have been done in Brazilian caves. The Rio Grande do Norte State (RN) has more than 300 of the almost 7000 caves that are well-known in Brazil. The objective of this study was to analyze the phylogenetic composition of the archaeal community in the soil of a cave (Gruta da Caridade, RN) located in a semiarid ecosystem. The study employed environmental genomic techniques (metagenomics).