Bacterial Community Structures of Terrestrial Soil from Barton Peninsula in King George Island, Antarctica

Abstract

Recent expansions of molecular biological methods to study microbial communities have detected unexpected high diversity and complexity of bacteria community in the harsh environment of Antarctica. In this study, we investigated the bacterial community structures and diversity of mineral soil samples from the Barton Peninsula in King George Island, Antarctica based on 16S rRNA genes using pyrosequencing technology. Soil samples were collected from surface (0-3 cm) and lower (3-10 cm) from 21 sites in December 2010. Sampling sites were selected to include diverse soil types, vegetation and water content. Twenty known divisions and 20 unknown divisions were recognized, where the phyla of Actinobacteria (18.6%), AD3 (13.4%), Alphaproteobacteria (8.4%) and Acidobacteria (8.0%) were dominant. Interestingly, unexpected diverse phylotypes of AD3 with 99 OTUs were detected, which found only from environments. The bacterial taxonomic and functional diversity was deeply affected by various physicochemical conditions. These findings have implied new perspectives of the microbial diversity and their adaptation in this unique ecosystem.