Líffræðifélag Íslands
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2015

Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E88

Cultivation methods comparison to grow thermophilic microorganisms from coastal hydrothermal vents

Pauline Vannier, Maxime Tourte, Eyjólfur Reynisson, Alexandra Klonowski and Viggó Þór Marteinsson

Matís Ohf, Food safety, Environments and Genetics division, Reykjavík, Iceland

Kynnir / Presenter: Pauline Vannier

Tengiliður / Corresponding author: Pauline Vannier (pauline.vannier@matis.is)

Prokaryotic diversity is known to be the most abundant part of the biosphere. Indeed, culture-independent methods, usually the 16S rRNA sequencing, have revealed a large prokaryotic diversity in almost every environment. However, only 1% of the microbial diversity has been successfully cultivated in laboratories. Microbiologists developed and are still developing methods to improve the cultivation efficiency. Our study focuses on a highly dynamic environment: Reykjanes, located in Westfjörds which is a coastal hydrothermal vents site. The fresh hot alkaline water (82°C, pH8) is covered at high tide by cold, salt water (7°C, 3% NaCl). Microorganisms have successfully colonized this extreme environment and a large diversity of psychrophiles and thermophiles was discovered using metagenomic approaches. Here, we used five cultivation-dependent methods using a rich medium designed for heterotrophic prokaryotes at 65°C: plating on solid medium, dilution-to-extinction in large and small volume, MicroDish® and cell sorting using flow cytometry to grow the prokaryotic diversities from this extreme environment. More than 300 strains were successfully cultivated belonging to genus Anoxybacillus, Geobacillus and Rhodothermus and were stored in the Icelandic Strains Collection And Records (ISCAR).