Peculiarities of <I>Alteromonas macleodii</I> strains reflects their deep/surface habitation rather than geographical distribution

Abstract

The phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genetic peculiarities of 5 deep strains of Alteromonas macleodii (isolated from Adriatic and Ionian Sea water from a depth of 1,000-3,500 m) and 5 strains of the same species isolated from the surface layer of Aegean, Andaman, Black Sea and Atlantic Ocean water near the British shore have been studied. Electron microscopy has shown that the deep strains' cells were, on average, two times longer (2.1±0.2×0.7±0.1 µm) than the surface strains' (1.1±0.1×0.6±0.1 µm). Using fatty acid analysis (particularly the mono-unsaturated C16:1 and C18:1 fatty acids contents) the deep and surface isolates were clearly separated into two clusters. Distinctions between them were also found in different lectin binding capacity, which is probably determined by the structure of their extracellular polysaccharide matrix. Analysis of the results of PCR with primers to repeated nucleotide sequences revealed a higher level of genetic polymorphism in surface strains in comparison with the deep isolates. This division was confirmed by the cluster analysis method though it was not as clear as in the fatty acids analysis. The described peculiarities are probably reflective of specific conditions in which A. macleodii strains live on the surface or in the depth of the world's oceans.

Role of bacteria in marine barite precipitation: A case study using Mediterranean seawater

“…This was supported by our rep-PCR DNA fingerprints and further identification on the basis of the 16S rDNA, as we recovered Alteromonas sp. from both eastern and western Mediterranean waters at respective depths of 250 m and 200 m. Other authors describe the significant presence of this marine organism in samples from the Atlantic (Klochko et al, 2012), and in many other tropical and temperate seas (García-Martínez et al, 2002). The genus Pseudoalteromonas is common to the marine environment, including seawater, algae, and marine invertebrates (Baumann et al, 1972(Baumann et al, , 1984Baumann and Baumann, 1981;Gauthier and Breittmayer, 1992;Sawabe et al, 2000).…”

Different utilization of alginate and other algal polysaccharides by marineAlteromonas macleodiiecotypes

“…In this context, comparative genomics demonstrated that strains EC673 and BS11 do not possess an AS, despite having the conserved genomic boundaries at the respective AS insertion sites and being clearly affiliated with the surface clade (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1462-2920.12862/suppinfo). This microdiversity mirrors strain‐specific variations in flexible genomic islands (López‐Pérez et al ., ) and suggests the presence of ‘sub‐ecotypes’ within the surface and deep clade (Klochko et al ., ), which possibly reflect specific adaptations to a certain habitat or niche.…”

Multilocus Sequence Analysis for Assessment of Phylogenetic Diversity and Biogeography in Thalassospira Bacteria from Diverse Marine Environments

“…For example, the marine bacterium Alteromonas macleodii are found to be generally clustered with the depth in the water column from which the isolate originated [50]. Klochko et al found that peculiarities of A. macleodii strains reflected their deep/surface habitation rather than geographical distribution [51]. Similarly, Tarasov et al exposed significant differences between deep and shallow-water hydrothermal vent communities [52].…”