Skip to main content
Log in

Bacteria from Antarctic environments: diversity and detection of antimicrobial, antiproliferative, and antiparasitic activities

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Polar Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Correction to this article was published on 19 April 2018

This article has been updated

Abstract

Microorganisms dominate most of Antarctic ecosystems and play a crucial role in their functioning. They are called extremophilic microorganisms with unique and versatile metabolic properties with possible biotechnological applications in several areas. The aim of the present study was to identify psychrotolerant microorganisms from Antarctic continent samples and to screen them for antimicrobial effects. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that most isolates were closely related to recognized species, including those recovered previously from Antarctica, which belonged to the major phyla Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria (classes Alpha, Beta, and Gammaproteobacteria). A total of 326 bacterial isolates, distributed in 39 different genera, were recovered and identified based on sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The main representative genera were Arthrobacter, Psychrobacter, Pseudoalteromonas, and Rhodococcus. Antimicrobial screening revealed fifteen isolates capable of inhibiting growth of at least one of the indicator strains: Escherichia coli, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, and Candida albicans. One psychrotolerant bacterium, Pseudomonas sp. isolate 99, showed a broad antimicrobial range, in addition to antiproliferative and antiparasitic activity. Overall, the small number of antibiotic-producing isolates obtained and the weakness of their inhibition halos corroborated previous findings suggesting that cold-loving bacteria from Antarctica are not as good as their relatives from mesophilic environments for antimicrobial prospecting. Nonetheless, antiproliferative and antiparasitic results observed are promising and suggest that there is an untapped wealth in Antarctic environments for bioprospecting compounds with pharmaceutical potential application.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

  • 19 April 2018

    During initial stage of copyediting, extra columns were spanned in Table 2; i.e., 6 and 7 and 10 and 11 resulting from automation. This produced an extra space between columns, which went unnoticed following the proofing stage. There was no request for a correction until publication. The publisher sincerely apologizes to the authors for the inconvenience caused. The original article has been corrected.

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Luis Henrique Rosa, coordinator of the MycoAntar Project (CNPq), and the Brazilian Antarctic Program for making the sampling feasible in the three expeditions OPERANTAR XXXII (summer 2013/2014), OPERANTAR XXXIII (summer 2014/2015), and OPERANTAR XXXIV (summer 2015/2016). The authors are also grateful to FAPESP for financial funding (process numbers 2014/17936-1; 2016/05640-6).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Valéria Maia Oliveira.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

The original version of this article has been revised due to a copyediting error where extra columns were spanned in Table 2; i.e., 6 and 7 and 10 and 11. The original article has been corrected. A correction to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2322-5.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 666 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Silva, T.R., Duarte, A.W.F., Passarini, M.R.Z. et al. Bacteria from Antarctic environments: diversity and detection of antimicrobial, antiproliferative, and antiparasitic activities. Polar Biol 41, 1505–1519 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2300-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2300-y

Keywords

Navigation