Long-term survival of microorganisms in frozen material from early Antarctic base camps at McMurdo Sound

Plate counts were made of bacteria surviving in materials from Shackleton's and Scott's camps from the first decade of this century. Several millions of bacteria per g of material were detected in samples of pony dung and lesser numbers in dried peas, pearl barley, chaff and straw. No coli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Antarctic Science
Main Authors: Nedwell, D. B., Russell, N. J., Cresswell-Maynard, T.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1994
Subjects:
Geology
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Oceanography
Antarctic
McMurdo Sound
Antarc*
Antarctic Science
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s095410209400009x
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S095410209400009X
Description
Summary:Plate counts were made of bacteria surviving in materials from Shackleton's and Scott's camps from the first decade of this century. Several millions of bacteria per g of material were detected in samples of pony dung and lesser numbers in dried peas, pearl barley, chaff and straw. No coliforms had survived in the dung: apparent positives in the presumptive coliform counts proved to be sporing Bacillus spp. when tested in a confirmatory coliform test. Subsamples of the colonies growing on agar plates all proved to be either Bacillus spp. producing endospores or actinomycetes ( Micromonospora spp.) with single spores along the hyphae.

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