Analysis of the bacterial diversity of samples from the Belgian Antarctic base through cultivation

• Main Authors: Peeters, Karolien, Willems, Anne
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Biology and Life Sciences; heterotrophic bacterial diversity; cultivation; Belgian polar research centre; Antarctic; Dronning Maud Land; Utsteinen; Antarc*; International Polar Year; IPY
• Online Access: https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/936599; http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-936599

The two investigated samples (n° 50 and n° 115) are part of a set of samples which were taken in Utsteinen (Dronning Maud Land, Antarctic), where the new Belgian polar research centre “the Princess Elisabeth Station” will be build. Samples were investigated with a culture-dependent approach. Dilution series were plated on four different media (MA, R2A, ten-times diluted R2A and PYGV) which were incubated at three different temperatures (20°C, 15°C and 4°C) and under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. After a growth period of approximately 14 days, 631 (n°50) and 374 (n°115) isolates were taken from the different plates based on differences in the morphology of the colonies. Using the rep-PCR fingerprinting technique, the large amount of isolates was dereplicated, yielding a smaller group of clusters. In total 90 (n°50) and 52 (n°115) clusters were delineated and 60 (n°50) and 58 (n°115) isolates formed single branches. Representatives of each cluster and the separate isolates were used in partial 16S rDNA sequencing to obtain a first approximate identification by comparison with the EMBL database. The preliminary results show a large diversity, distributed over the major phylogenetic groups (Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Deinococci, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes). For both samples, most isolates belong to the class of the Actinobacteria but also isolates from the Bacteroidetes, Deinococci and Alphaproteobacteria were recovered. Only a few isolates belong to the Firmicutes, Beta- and Gammaproteobacteria. Despite the large diversity and the fact that the samples originate from the same general area, only little overlap between the two samples was observed. Some of the isolated clusters show low similarity values with neighbouring sequences in the EMBL-database and may represent new species or even new genera. This work forms part of the AMBIO-project which is funded by BELSPO (Belgian Science Policy) and has been accepted as an IPY (International Polar Year) project. The project is a collaboration between A. ...