Antibiotic and metal resistance of cultivable bacteria in the Antarctic sea urchin

• Published in: Antarctic Science
• Main Authors: González-Aravena, M., Urtubia, R., Del Campo, K., Lavín, P., Wong, C.M.V.L., Cárdenas, C.A., González-Rocha, G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2016
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctic Science
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102016000109; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102016000109

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.