Publication details
Characterization of psychrothropic bacteria occurring in soil and water environment at James Ross Island, Antarctica
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Antarctic soils and fresh waters harbour a pool of psychrotrophic taxa which may be rich sources of new cold-adapted enzymes, pigments or other active biomolecules. Reliable knowledge of taxonomy of microorganisms in Antarctic environment is a fundamental prerequisite for their investigation, bioprospecting and efficient co-operation between different fields of basic and applied microbiological research. This biodiversity study was focused on investigation of soil and fresh water psychrotrophic cultivable prokaryotes originating from James Ross Island, Antarctica. We have isolated a wide spectrum of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria and the polyphasic approach was applied for their taxonomy including extensive phenotyping, manual and/or automated ribotyping by RiboPrinter, analysis of whole cell proteins by SDS-PAGE, 16S rDNA phylogenetic study, rpoD and rpoB sequencing and metabolic fingerprint by Biolog kit. More than 1200 isolates from expeditions in 2008 – 2013 years are available now. They are mainly members of the class Gammaproteobacteria, a predominant bacteria there. The second most often group of isolates represented yellow or orange pigmented psychrophilic sphingobacteria and chryseobacteria. A small set of 46 rose-red colored, oligotrophic and psychrophilic isolates of gram-negative bacteria was studied with polyphasic approach strategy and members of Pedobacter spp., Hymenobacter spp. and Massilia spp. were proved in Antarctic samples. The similarity in Pedobacter sp. cluster was 99.4 – 100%, in Massilia/Duganella sp. 99.7-100% and in Hymenobacter 92.7–96%. Reliable identification to the species level was not possible using the 16S rDNA sequencing and isolated strains probably denote new taxa related to mentioned genera. The detail characterization and taxonomic status of isolated rose-red pigmented bacteria will improve our knowledge of the phylogenetic structure, population variability and diversity of microorganisms inhabiting the James Ross Island soil and fresh water environment. Moreover, this knowledge enables ex situ preservation of cold-adapted environment-born bacterial strains representing a valuable source for biotechnology and bioremediation. |