Líffræðifélag Íslands
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2015
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V95
Máney Sveinsdóttir (1), Deepika Dhamoradan (1,3), Sudharsan Sreenivas (1,3), Santhalingam Elamurugan (1,3), Oddur Vilhelmsson (1), Ólafur K. Nielsen (4) and Kristinn P. Magnússon (1,2)
1. University of Akureyri, Faculty of Natural Resource Sciences, 2. Icelandic Institute of Natural History, Akureyri, 3. Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Lithuania, 4. Icelandic Institute of Natural History, Garðabær
Kynnir / Presenter: Kristinn P. Magnússon
Tengiliður / Corresponding author: Kristinn P. Magnússon (kpm@unak.is)
The role of the microbiota in health and physiology of vertebrate hosts is an exciting area in microbial ecology. Birds harbour both pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria which may affect health and fitness. While keratin-degrading bacteria can have negative effects on birds, non-pathogenic bacteria present in gastrointestinals play an important role in breaking down carbohydrates from plant food sources. In this preliminary study we characterized bacteria from feathers and ceca of birds obtained from the ongoing longitudinal study “Rock Ptarmigan Health and Population Change”. Samples from feathers and ceca were serially diluted and plated on both commercial media and on feather meal agar. Colonies were screened and isolated based on morphological characteristics. A total of 48 strains were colony-PCR and16S rDNA-sequenced, yielding 24 distinct OTUs, including a putatively novel Deinococcus sp.. Thirteen bacterial isolates from feathers bacteria showed keratinase activity in a simple assay to determine keratin degradation in vitro. The ceca hosted various bacterial taxa, including Bacillus, Micrococcus, and Moraxella. Microbial biodiversity cannot be fully covered by cultivation methods. Therefore a more complete study using metagenomics would be complementary.