Biodiscovery and biodiversity of Antarctic bacteria ...

• Main Author: Twin, J
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: University Of Tasmania 2023
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25959/23243027; https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/Biodiscovery_and_biodiversity_of_Antarctic_bacteria/23243027

This PhD dissertation explores aspects of the microbial ecology of Antarctica, focussing on the taxonomy and physiological attributes of Antarctic bacteria, as well as investigating the bacterial diversity of previously uncharacterised Antarctic environments. The University of Tasmania has in its possession a collection of 1600 Actinobacteria strains previously isolated from Antarctic and sub-Antarctic soils. A polyphasic study involving both phylogenetic and phenotypic comparisons was carried out to identify any potentially novel bacterial strains. Five isolates of interest were identified, belonging to the genera Arthrobacter, Promicromonospora, and Rhodococcus. Further studies revealed one Rhodococcus strain exhibited the ability to utilise an unusually wide range of hydrocarbons including both straight chain alkanes and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. During this study it was noted that members of the genus Streptomyces dominated this archive of Actinobacteria, and subsequent antimicrobial screening showed a ...