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Analysis of Bacterial Communities of King George and Deception Islands, Antarctica using High-Throughput Sequencing


Affiliations
1 Biotechnology Research Institute, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
2 Instituto Antartico Chileno, Plaza Munoz Gamero 1055, Punta Arenas, Chile
3 Department of Biomedical Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
4 National Antarctic Research Centre, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
 

King George Island (KGI) and Deception Island (DCI) are members of the South Shetland Islands in Antarctica, each with their own landscape and local environmental factors. Both sites are suitable for longterm monitoring of bacterial diversity shift due to warming, as temperature rises relatively faster than East Antarctica. This study was conducted to determine and compare the baseline diversity of soil bacteria in KGI and DCI. 16S rDNA amplicons of bacteria from both sites were sequenced using Illumina next generation sequencer. Results showed that major phyla in KGI and DCI were Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Verrucomicrobia, Bacteriodetes and Acidobacteria. The distribution and evenness of the soil bacterial communities varied at genus level. The genera Sphingomonas sp. was predominant at both sites while the subsequent six major genera differed. Two bacterial genera, Legionella and Clostridium were also found in low abundance in both sites, both of which may contain pathogenic members. Further verification will be required to determine whether the pathogenic members of these genera are present in both sites.

Keywords

Antarctica, South Shetland Islands, Soil Bacterial Diversity, 16S rDNA, Pyrosequencing.
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  • Analysis of Bacterial Communities of King George and Deception Islands, Antarctica using High-Throughput Sequencing

Abstract Views: 349  |  PDF Views: 116

Authors

C. Y. Chua
Biotechnology Research Institute, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
S. T. Yong
Biotechnology Research Institute, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
M. A. Gonzalez
Instituto Antartico Chileno, Plaza Munoz Gamero 1055, Punta Arenas, Chile
P. Lavin
Instituto Antartico Chileno, Plaza Munoz Gamero 1055, Punta Arenas, Chile
Y. K. Cheah
Department of Biomedical Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
G. Y. A. Tan
National Antarctic Research Centre, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
C. M. V. L. Wong
Biotechnology Research Institute, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract


King George Island (KGI) and Deception Island (DCI) are members of the South Shetland Islands in Antarctica, each with their own landscape and local environmental factors. Both sites are suitable for longterm monitoring of bacterial diversity shift due to warming, as temperature rises relatively faster than East Antarctica. This study was conducted to determine and compare the baseline diversity of soil bacteria in KGI and DCI. 16S rDNA amplicons of bacteria from both sites were sequenced using Illumina next generation sequencer. Results showed that major phyla in KGI and DCI were Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Verrucomicrobia, Bacteriodetes and Acidobacteria. The distribution and evenness of the soil bacterial communities varied at genus level. The genera Sphingomonas sp. was predominant at both sites while the subsequent six major genera differed. Two bacterial genera, Legionella and Clostridium were also found in low abundance in both sites, both of which may contain pathogenic members. Further verification will be required to determine whether the pathogenic members of these genera are present in both sites.

Keywords


Antarctica, South Shetland Islands, Soil Bacterial Diversity, 16S rDNA, Pyrosequencing.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv115%2Fi9%2F1701-1705