Abstract
A free-living amoeba, Naegleria is ubiquitously distributed in various natural environments. Since some Naegleria spp. are exclusively distributed in the Arctic and sub-Antarctic regions, we hypothesized that the amoeba may be useful to determine long-term survival of Naegleria in laboratory conditions at 4 °C. The main objective of the study is to determine that a species of an environmental amoebal isolated can live at low temperatures after a long time. Here, we therefore show long-term survival of an amoeba, Naegleria polaris isolated from a sediment sample, which was collected from Antarctica 10 years ago, and since stored at 4 °C. The sample was put on non-nutrient agar plates with heat-killed Escherichia coli, and then the plate was incubated at 4, 15, or 30 °C. Motile amoebae were seen only when the plate was incubated at 15 °C. The sequencing of ribosomal DNA including internal transcribed spacers (ITS) 1, 5.8S rDNA, and ITS2 region revealed the amoebae to be N. polaris, which is exclusively distributed in the Arctic and sub-Antarctic regions. Scanning electron microscopic observation showed that no typical sucker-like structure was seen on the surface of N. polaris, but the cysts were similar to those of Naegleria fowleri. Thus, our result shows, for the first time, that N. polaris can survive after 10 years of storage at 4 °C. This finding may help us understand the still undescribed effects of environmental samples on viability of amoebae.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the members of the 47th Japan Antarctica Research Expedition for their logistic assistance and Y. Takano (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology) for his support. We also thank Colleen Elso, PhD, from Edanz Group (www.edanzediting.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript.
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Matsuo, J., Nakamura, S., Okubo, T. et al. Long-term survival of Naegleria polaris from Antarctica after 10 years of storage at 4 °C. Parasitol Res 117, 937–941 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-5779-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-5779-9