Genetics to characterise marine bacteria bank
The sea is teaming with bacteria. These bacteria play a key role in the cycling of nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, sulphur and other elements. This has relevance for the ocean's ability to support life, its moderation of the global climate system and other important aspects. Yet very little is known about these marine bacteria as they have proven extremely difficult to cultivate in the laboratory setting. This led the Nederlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO) to join the MIRACLE research project aimed at developing new methods to identify and differentiate marine microbial bacteria. The NIOO scientists used sequencing to detect unique elements of the genetic code of bacteria. Samples were collected from the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Ionian Sea in the Mediterranean. Sequencing of the 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (16S rRNA) led to the identification of over 200 unique sequences. The breakdown between cyanobacteria, heterotrophic bacteria and eukaryotic plastids varied significantly between regions. In addition, NIOO isolated unique sequences of phycoerythrin operon (cpeBA) in samples of cyanobacteria from the Baltic Sea. The results of this work are being compiled into 14 clone libraries that will be submitted to the GeneBank. MIRACLE marks an important step forward in improving our knowledge of oceanic microbial biodiversity. In the future this could open the door to exploitation for medicinal, biotechnology, bioremediation and other applications.
