Isolation, identification, and diversity analysis of bacteria able to degrade humic substances from Antarctic soil, 2012

Three different kinds of soil humic substances were extracted from soil and plant debris samples from surrounding area of the King Sejong Station. A total of 53 cold-adapted bacterial strains having an ability to degrade or bioconvert humic substances were isolated from the samples. The isolates were identified through the analysis of their 16S rRNA genes and the bacterial diversity was analyzed to be simple. The objective is to isolate bacterial strains able to degrade humic substances from cold environments in the Arctic and Antarctic regions and to analyze their microbial diversity. Also, a functional genomic study on the microbial degradative pathway(s) for soil humic substances is an another main purpose.