Diversity, cold active enzymes and adaptation strategies of bacteria inhabiting glacier cryoconite holes of High Arctic

Abstract

Cryoconite holes have biogeochemical, ecological and biotechnological importance. This communication presents results on culturable psychrophilic bacterial diversity from cryoconite holes at Midre Lovénbreen (ML), Austre Brøggerbreen (AB), and Vestre Brøggerbreen (VB) glaciers. The culturable bacterial count ranged from 2.7 × 10(3) to 8.8 × 10(4) CFUs/g while the total bacterial numbers ranged from 5.07 × 10(5) to 1.50 × 10(6) cells at the three glaciers. A total of 35 morphologically distinct bacterial isolates were isolated. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence data, the identified species belonged to eight genera namely Pseudomonas, Polaromonas, Micrococcus, Subtercola, Agreia, Leifsonia, Cryobacterium and Flavobacterium. The isolates varied in their growth temperature, NaCl tolerance, growth pH, enzyme activities, carbon utilization and antibiotic sensitivity tests. Fatty acid profiles indicate the predominance of branched fatty acids in the isolates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first record of culturable bacterial communities and their characterization from glacier cryoconites from High Arctic. High amylase and protease activities expressed by Micrococcus sp. MLB-41 and amylase, protease and lipase activities expressed by Cryobacterium sp. MLB-32 provide a clue to the potential applications of these organisms. These cold-adapted enzymes may provide an opportunity for the prospect of biotechnology in Arctic.

Microbial community changes along the Ecology Glacier ablation zone (King George Island, Antarctica)

“…Our TC data were in line with those previously reported for Ecology Glacier surface ice, and those for Canada Glacier, Antarctica (Foreman et al 2007;Zdanowski et al 2013). Stibal et al (2012) and Singh et al (2014) reported higher microbial abundance in cryoconite holes at Svalbard and Greenland glaciers than we have done here. However, these authors' counts were based on per gram of sediment; Stibal et al (2012) also presented photoautotroph counts of 10-10 2 lower than the total count, also consistent with our observations.…”

“…However, these authors' counts were based on per gram of sediment; Stibal et al (2012) also presented photoautotroph counts of 10-10 2 lower than the total count, also consistent with our observations. The little published data on supraglacial CFU numbers that are available are in line with our findings (Christner et al 2003;Zdanowski et al 2013;Singh et al 2014).…”

Cold Active Lipases Produced by Cryptococcus sp. Y-32 and Rhodococcus erythropolis N149 Isolated from Nella Lake, Antarctica

“…able to produce cold active lipase using olive oil (Rapp and Backhaus, 1992;Divya and Padma, 2015). There are many reports of getting cold active lipase by bacteria and fungi isolated from various regions like Antarctica (Vaz et al, 2011;Carrasco et al, 2012;Antony et al, 2016), Arctic (Hatha et al, 2013;Singh et al, 2012bSingh et al, , 2014aSingh et al, , b, 2015 and other deep sea and temperate regions (Buzzini and Martini, 2002;Jeon et al, 2009;Joseph et al, 2012;Ray, 2014a, b, 2015b).…”

Isolation, Partial Purification and Characterization of a Cold Active Lipase from Pseudomonas sp., Isolated from Satopanth Glacier of Western Himalaya, India

“…After that, seven isolates were screened for extracellular lipase production on tributyrin agar plate. Antarctic marine, glaciers, arctic and polar region that producing lipase enzymes [25][26][27].…”