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. 2022 Mar 29;19(7):4025.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19074025.

Heterotrophic Microbiota from the Oligotrophic Waters of Lake Vostok, Antarctica

Ekaterina Y Epova  1 , Alexei B Shevelev  1 , Ramazan M Akbayev  2 , Yulia K Biryukova  1 , Marina V Zylkova  1 , Elena S Bogdanova  1 , Marina A Guseva  1 , Yaroslav Y Tynio  1 , Vladislav V Egorov  2
Affiliations

Heterotrophic Microbiota from the Oligotrophic Waters of Lake Vostok, Antarctica

Ekaterina Y Epova et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Lake Vostok is the deepest lake of Antarctica but has poor accessibility for study due to a thick glacial cover, however, water samples of this lake have become available for study just recently. Previously, only the microbiome of the ice cover samples was characterized. Here we report results of bacteriological seeding with subsequent identification of the heterotrophic microorganisms (bacteria and micellar fungi) present by 16S rDNA sequencing as well as results of a direct molecular study of the water microbiome. Surprisingly, the data obtained gave evidence of a predominant occurrence of common chemoorganotrophs that were rather psychrotolerant than psychrophilic. We isolated and described strains belonging to eight heterotrophic microbial species able to grow in a rich medium: six bacterial strains belonging to the species Microbacterium testaceum and Microbacterium trichothecenolyticum, Brevundimonas diminuta, Sphingomonas oligophenolica, Sphingomonas sp. and Sphingobium limneticum; and two fungal strains belonging to Dendryphion sp. and Cladosporium fusiforme. Direct study of 16S rDNA purified water samples confirmed the predominance of the Brevundimonas, Microbacterium, Bradyrhizobium, and Bacillus (Bacillus cereus) genera.

Keywords: 16S rDNA; Antarctica; Brevundimonas diminuta; Cladosporium fusiforme; Dendryphion; Microbacterium testaceum; Microbacterium trichothecenolyticum; Sphingobium limneticum; Sphingomonas; Sphingomonas oligophenolica; chemoorganotrophs; fresh water; lake; microbiota.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of the most studied lakes in Antarctica (a) and 5G borehole in Lake Vostok (b).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Typical view of a Petri dish with 1× LB agar after plating 0.5 mL of a water sample and incubation for 3 days at room temperature.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Typical view of a Petri dish with 1× LB agar with plated Microbacterium trichotecenolyticum—type 1 (a) and Brevundimonas diminuta—type 3 (b).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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