Identification of cultivable Antarctic marine bacteria

Abstract

Diverse bacterial strains were isolated from marine samples that had been collected around the King Sejong Station, King George Island in Antarctica (62° 13′ S, 58° 47′ W). The collected samples were diluted in sterilized seawater, and cultured on zobell agar plates at 10℃ and 25℃. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the marine bacteria belonged to alpha-Proteobacteria (Devosia, Roseobacter), beta-Proteobacteria (Thiobacillus), and gamma-Proteobacteria (Glaciecola, Psychrobacter, Psychromonas, Pseudoalteromonas, Shewanella), the CFB group (Aequorivita, Cellulophaga, Flavobacterium, Flexibacter, Formosa, Pibocella, Polaribacter, Zobellia), Low GC Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus, Planococcus), and High GC Gram-positive bacteria (Arthrobacter, Plantibacter, Rhodococcus, Sanguibacter, Winogradskyella). We screened chitinase-producing bacteria & found a good strain, KOPRI21702 with high chitinase activity and productivity at low temperature. The strain KOPRI 21702 was reported as Sanguibacter antarcticus KOPRI 21702T, sp. nov.