Isolation of Protease-Producing Arctic Marine Bacteria

Abstract

We isolated and identified three protease-producing bacteria that had inhabited the region around the Korean Arctic Research Station Dasan located at Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, Norway (79oN, 12oE). Biofilms were collected from the surface of a floating pier and from dead brown algae in a tide pool near the seashore. The biofilm samples were transported to the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) under frozen conditions, diluted in sterilized seawater, and cultured on Zobell agar plates with 1% skim milk at 10oC. Three clear zone forming colonies were selected as protease-producing bacteria. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA sequences showed that these three stains shared high sequence similarities with Pseudoalteromonas elyakovii, Exiguobacterium oxidotolerum and Pseudomonas jessenii, respectively. We expect these Arctic bacteria may be used to develop new varieties of protease that are active at low temperatures.