Bacterial Plasmids in Antarctic Natural Microbial Assemblages
Samples of psychrophilic and psychrotrophic bacteria were collected from sea ice, seawater, sediments, and benthic or ice-associated animals in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. A total of 155 strains were isolated and tested for the presence of plasmids by DNA agarose gel electrophoresis. Thirty-one perce...
| Published in: | Applied and Environmental Microbiology |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Society for Microbiology
1984
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/aem.48.3.515-518.1984 https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/aem.48.3.515-518.1984 |
| Summary: | Samples of psychrophilic and psychrotrophic bacteria were collected from sea ice, seawater, sediments, and benthic or ice-associated animals in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. A total of 155 strains were isolated and tested for the presence of plasmids by DNA agarose gel electrophoresis. Thirty-one percent of the isolates carried at least one kind of plasmid. Bacterial isolates taken from sediments showed the highest plasmid incidence (42%), and isolates from seawater showed the lowest plasmid incidence (20%). Plasmids were significantly more frequent in the strains which had been first isolated from low-nutrient media (46%) than in the strains which had been isolated from high-nutrient media (25%). Multiple forms of plasmids were observed in two-thirds of the plasmid-carrying strains. A majority of the plasmids detected were estimated to have a mass of 10 megadaltons or less. Among 48 plasmid-carrying strains, 7 showed antibiotic resistance. It is concluded that bacterial plasmids are ubiquitous in natural microbial assemblages of the pristine marine ecosystem of Antarctica. |
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