Rich bacterial assemblages from Maritime Antarctica (Potter Cove, South Shetlands) reveal several kinds of endemic and undescribed phylotypes

• Main Authors: Ignacio A Landone Vescovo, Marcelo D Golemba, Federico A Di Lello, Andrés C.A Culasso, Gustavo Levinb, Lucas Ruberto, Walter P Mac Cormack, José L López
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish
• Published: Elsevier España
• Subjects: Colecciones bacterianas; Afiliación filogenética; Antártica; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Microbiology; QR1-502; Antarctic; Potter Cove; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/614912a9695b4d13acb3d653db89650a

Bacterial richness in maritime Antarctica has been poorly described to date. Phylogenetic affiliation of seawater free-living microbial assemblages was studied from three locations near the Argentinean Jubany Station during two Antarctic summers. Sixty 16S RNA cloned sequences were phylogenetically affiliated to Alphaproteobacteria (30/60 clones), Gammaproteobacteria(19/60 clones), Betaproteobacteria and Cytophaga-Flavobacteriia- Bacteroides (CFB), which were (2/60) and (3/60) respectively. Furthermore, six out of 60 clones could not be classified. Both, Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria, showed several endemic and previously undescribed sequences. Moreover, the absence of Cyanobacteria sequences in our samples is remarkable. In conclusion, we are reporting a rich sequence assemblage composed of widely divergent isolates among themselves and distant from the most closely related sequences currently deposited in data banks.