Antibiotic and metal resistance of cultivable bacteria in the Antarctic sea urchin
Abstract In this paper we report the first characterization of cultivable bacteria obtained from the Antarctic sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri . The coelomic fluid was obtained from a pool of sea urchins which was plated onto different media to isolate the bacteria. A total of 42 isolates of psychr...
| Published in: | Antarctic Science |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102016000109 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102016000109 |
| Summary: | Abstract In this paper we report the first characterization of cultivable bacteria obtained from the Antarctic sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri . The coelomic fluid was obtained from a pool of sea urchins which was plated onto different media to isolate the bacteria. A total of 42 isolates of psychrotrophic and aerobic γ-Proteobacteria (59.5%), Flavobacteria (33.3%) and Actinomycetes (7.2%) were isolated and sequenced. These bacteria were exposed to heavy metals and antibiotics, where 38 strains were analysed by the minimal inhibitory concentration method. Antibiotic resistance was detected in 44% of cultivable strains, and a further 13% presented co-resistance to antibiotics and heavy metals. The genera of bacteria that showed an increased resistance and co-resistance to metals and antibiotics were Flavobacterium , Psychrobacter and Pseudomonas . Additionally, 30.9% of isolated bacterial strains contained plasmids, which are probably related to resistance and co-resistance to metals. These results indicate that sea urchin-associated bacteria could be reservoirs for antibiotic resistance genes. |
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