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Ancient Protozoa Isolated from Permafrost

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Permafrost Soils

Part of the book series: Soil Biology ((SOILBIOL,volume 16))

Permafrost is a unique environment, which is capable to protect microorganisms from the effect of adverse factors and to provide their long-term preservation. This chapter represents an overview of the distribution and biodiversity of viable forms of protozoa in the subsurface permafrost sediments of North-East Russia. A total of 200 samples of Arctic permafrost, buried soils and burrows of fossil rodents, whose age ranges from several hundred to three million years, were investigated for the presence of viable protozoa. Most of the isolated paleoprotozoans belong to species that are distributed worldwide. The authors discuss the species composition of the ancient protozoan communities in relation to different adaptive strategies for the survival of the organisms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142290, Insitutskaya 2, Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russia

    Anastassia V. Shatilovich, Lubov A. Shmakova & David A. Gilichinsky

  2. Institute for Biology of Inland Waters, Russian Academy of Sciences, 152742, Borok, Yaroslavl Region, Russia

    Alexander P. Mylnikov

Authors
  1. Anastassia V. Shatilovich
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  2. Lubov A. Shmakova
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  3. Alexander P. Mylnikov
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  4. David A. Gilichinsky
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Correspondence to Anastassia V. Shatilovich .

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  1. Institute of Microbiology, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Rosa Margesin

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Shatilovich, A.V., Shmakova, L.A., Mylnikov, A.P., Gilichinsky, D.A. (2009). Ancient Protozoa Isolated from Permafrost. In: Margesin, R. (eds) Permafrost Soils. Soil Biology, vol 16. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69371-0_8

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