Premium
Isolation of Bacillus thuringiensis from Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica
Author(s) -
Forsyth G.,
Logan N.A.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
letters in applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.698
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1472-765X
pISSN - 0266-8254
DOI - 10.1046/j.1472-765x.2000.00706.x
Subject(s) - bacillus thuringiensis , guano , biology , spore , isolation (microbiology) , bacteria , lichen , bacillales , algae , botany , psychrophile , microbiology and biotechnology , veterinary medicine , ecology , genetics , bacillus subtilis , medicine
Sixty‐two samples of Antarctic soils, mosses, penguin guano, algae and lichens were examined for the presence of aerobic endospore‐forming bacteria; 36 samples (58%) yielded such organisms, and two samples from Edmonson Point (74°21′S 165°08′E) and one sample from Apostrophe Island (73°32′S 167°24′E), northern Victoria Land, yielded strains of Bacillus thuringiensis . Further isolations from two of the samples, appreciable variation in biotypes among the strains, failure of the strains to grow on routine B. thuringiensis media, and the fact that one of the sampling sites is very rarely visited by humans, suggest that the organisms were living in these soils rather than being chance contaminants. A representative strain, from Apostrophe Island, was identified as serovar pirenaica (H57).