Diversity of Cultivable Bacteria and Those with Anti-microbial Activities - umsbact01

Bacteria biomass, bacteria identities and bacteria with ability to produce
anti-microbial compounds were among the data generated from this project.

This project was undertaken to elucidate the bacteria population in various
areas and environment in the Antarctica. Cultivable bacteria were isolated and
screened for anti-microbial activities against pathogen found in the tropics,
such as Listeria spp., Vibrio spp. Salmonella spp. and Camphylobacter spp. Soil
and water samples for isolation of bacteria were collected from various
locations in Antarctica, namely water channels, continental ice, seas, lakes
and rocky areas with and without human and animal activities by using
sterilized tubes. Bacteria were grown in two different media, Luria-Bertani and
nutrient media. The Luria Bertani medium (10 g/l tryptone, 5 g/l yeast extract
and 5 g/l sodium chloride), and Nutrient medium (Peptone from meat 3.45 g/l,
sodium chloride 5.1 g/l and peptone from casein 3.45 g/l) were diluted to 1/10
of its original concentration, and sterilized by autoclaving at 121�C at 15lb
for 15 mins. Bacteria from liquid culture were diluted and plated onto
Luria-Bertani and Nutrient Media containing 1.5% Bacto-Agar (Difco). Single
colony was picked and streaked onto fresh medium and the processed was repeated
until a pure culture was obtained. Two ml of bacteria in liquid culture was
used for genomic DNA extraction using the DNAeasy Kit (Qiagen) according to the
instructions from the manufacturer. Universal primers 25f, 518r, 530f, 907r,
926f, 1114f, 1392r and 1525r were used in various combinations to amplify the
16S rDNA of bacteria. Amplified 16S rDNA genes were sequenced and analyzed
using the basic local alignment search tool (BLAST), a web-based software at
http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/. This project is funded by the Malaysian
Antarctica Research Programme (MARP) and Intensifying Research in Priority
Areas (IRPA) grants from Malaysia.