Líffræðifélag Íslands
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2015
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E20
M. Auður Sigurbjörnsdóttir(1), Heiða B. Friðjónsdóttir(1), Guðný V. Þorsteinsdóttir(1), Oddur Vilhelmsson(1,2)
(1)Department of Natural Resource Sciences, University of Akureyri, Borgir v. Nordurslod, 600 Akureyri, Iceland, (2) Biomedical Center, University of Iceland, Vatnsmýrarvegur 16, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland
Kynnir / Presenter: Oddur Vilhelmsson
Tengiliður / Corresponding author: Oddur Vilhelmsson (oddurv@unak.is)
The Arctic environment in general, and cold desert soil in particular, is characterized by low species diversity, generally low biomass, and low biodegradation rates. It is thus an environment highly responsive to perturbation and sensitive to spillage and other forms of pollution. Bioprospecting cold biotopes for, and isolation and characterization of, potential cold-active bioremediators of hydrocarbons, biopolymers, and other common and/or recalcitrant environmental contaminants, is thus an urgent priority. We have bioprospected several habitats in northern and central Iceland and have established a culture collection of more than 3,000 pure-cultured bacterial isolates. Among biotopes yielding taxonomically diverse, easily cultured, cold-active biodegradative bacteria are terricolous and saxicolous lichens, from where members of 49 families in 11 classes have been isolated and identified. More than 10% of the lichen-associated isolates tested were positive for naphthalene oxidation at 15°C. Most of the strains were psychrotrophic, being able to produce significant growth at 5°C. Most naphthalene-oxidizing strains were also able to produce biosurfactants. Among naphthalene-oxidizing taxa were Actinobacteria (Dietzia spp.), Alphaproteobacteria (Sphingomonas and Polymorphobacter spp.), Betaproteobacteria (Burkholderia spp.), Bacilli (Bacillus and Paenibacillus spp.) and Sphingobacteriia (Pedobacter and Mucilaginibacter spp.). Another promising source of bioremdiative bacteria are glacial rivers, which, reflecting the microbial populations of the various terrestrial habitats in their catchment area, as well as the potentially rich source of oligotrophic psychrotrophs in glacial ice and cryoconite, yield diverse and highly active biodegradative bacteria of varying ease of culturability.