Bacterial Biodiversity, Cold Adaption and Biotechnological Importance of Bacteria Occurring in Antarctica

Abstract

Antarctica is the coldest, iciest, windiest and driest continent and defines the limits of temperature at which life forms can survive and divide. These cold loving microorganisms are known as psychrophiles and are present in all the unique habitats of Antarctica including permafrost and ice. Their distribution and abundance varies from habitat to habitat and several new genera and species have been discovered in the icy continent. They have several strategies by which they survive and divide at low temperature such as the ability to catalyze reactions and continue metabolism with cold-tolerant enzymes; ability to maintain optimum membrane fluidity at low temperature; occurrence of specific genes required for survival at low temperatures; presence of antifreeze-activity etc.. Enzymes from psychrophilic bacteria have been found to be useful for several purposes ranging from recombinant DNA technology to food processing. The ability of cold-tolerant organisms to degrade petroleum products and other environmental pollutants highlight them as potential candidates for bioremediation in extreme cold environments. The recently reported genome sequences of a number of novel cold-tolerant isolates are likely to provide some more insights into the mechanism of bacterial cryotolerance.

Metagenomic Analysis of Microbial Community Compositions and Cold-Responsive Stress Genes in Selected Antarctic Lacustrine and Soil Ecosystems

“…For example, Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the abundant phyla, whereas phylum Actinobacteria, although varied in their abundances, were found in all metagenomes. The microbial taxa and cold-adaptive traits found in our samples have also been reported previously in diverse Antarctic soil, sediment, and aquatic ecosystems [ 21 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ]. Despite the similarities in microbial composition across all metagenomes, noticeable differences at the genus level were found when compared between the water and the combined soil and lake sediment metagenomes.…”

A Metataxonomic Approach Reveals Diversified Bacterial Communities in Antarctic Sponges

“…Furthermore, some bacteria were described as highly specialized hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms [ 51 , 52 ] and their wide distribution may be due to a strong positive interaction in environments where bacteria represent a fundamental source of nutrients, such as the case of Antarctica. This finding could be corroborated by results revealing that these bacteria are able to adapt to extreme environments, including polar habitats [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 ]. Concerning their biotechnological potential, genome-mining approaches reported several biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) encoding for bioactive molecules from marine Proteobacteria (reviewed by Buijs et al [ 57 ]).…”

Antarktika: Yaşam Bilimleri ve Biyoteknoloji Araştırmalarının Gözden Geçirilmesi

“…Bu biyolojik çeşitliliğe verilecek örneklerden biri bazı göllerin organik karbon kaynağının çok az olması veya çok fazla olması ya da fosforca zengin olması gibi özelliklerinden dolayı, metanol, azot ve fosfor parçalayan bakterileri bünyelerinde barındırmasıdır [73,74]. Farklı olarak Yergeau ve ark.…”