Isolation and characterization of coliforms from glacial ice and water in Canada's High Arctic

Abstract

1997. Ellesmere Island is the northern most member of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago with over one-third of the land mass covered by ice. A joint services expedition to the island's Blue Mountains offered a unique opportunity for microbiological studies of resident bacteria in an environment uninhabited by man. Over 100 samples of water and ice were collected from stream, lake and glacier and the filtrate cultured under canvas. Bacterial growth was harvested onto swabs for transport back to the UK and 50 coliforms chosen at random for identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing. Most of the glacial strains were capsulated, pigmented and some over 2000 years old. Genera such as Serratia, Enterobarter, Klehsiella and Yersinia were found; speciation was inconclusive and some organisms remain unidentified. Ampicillin resistance was evident in 80% of water isolates as opposed to 30% of the glacial organisms, but the isolates were generally exquisitely susceptible to antibiotics. T h e facility for ampicillin resistance did not appear to be transferable. Plasmid DNA was found in 33% of the glacial organisms and over 50% of the water isolates. Similar profiles were identified within and apparently between species and required plasmid restriction analysis to help establish identity. Plasmid-free Serratia spp. were subjected to genomic fingerprinting. Indistinguishable patterns were found within sets of isolates both widely spaced by distance and collection date and it was postulated that coliforms able to survive an Arctic environment had spread extensively throughout the expedition area. In conclusion, this study contributes towards knowledge of naturally occurring antibiotic resistance, confirms the presence of plasmids and genotypic data provided evidence that potentially ancient organisms from glaciers can be cultured from water samples significantly distant.

Tetracycline Antibiotics: Mode of Action, Applications, Molecular Biology, and Epidemiology of Bacterial Resistance

“…Studies of naturally occurring environmental bacteria, representative of populations existing before the widespread use of tetracyclines by humans (52), also support the view that the emergence of resistance is a relatively modern event that has followed the introduction of these agents for clinical, veterinary, and agricultural use. Indeed, resistance to tetracyclines has now emerged in many commensal and pathogenic bacteria due to genetic acquisition of tet genes.…”

“…The tet(G) (11,319), tet(H) (94), and tet(I) genes (116) have not been extensively examined for their distribution in gram-negative bacteria. It is clear that many environmental (8,52) and food and animal (14,40,46,55,60,61,101,102,133,135,141,266,276,280) isolates are tetracycline resistant. However, these bacteria have not yet been as extensively examined as those associated with human disease.…”

Phylogenetic and Physiological Diversity of Microorganisms Isolated from a Deep Greenland Glacier Ice Core

“…1. GenBank 16S rRNA gene sequence accession numbers for each of the GIC isolates used in the alignment are given in parentheses after the isolate number: 11 (AY439223), 12 (AY439224), 15 …”

Culturable bacteria in Himalayan glacial ice in response to atmospheric circulation

“…Bacteria in glacial ice have been studied for polar regions (Dancer et al, 1997;Abyzov et al, 1998;Castello et al, 1999;Willerslev et al, 1999), and the Tibetan plateau (Christner et al, 2000;Zhang et al, 2003;Yao et al, 2006). Abyzov et al (1998) reported that the amount of bacteria in melt water samples of the Antarctic Vostok ice core was closely correlated with mineral concentrations at the time of deposition.…”