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. 1984 Sep;48(3):515–518. doi: 10.1128/aem.48.3.515-518.1984

Bacterial Plasmids in Antarctic Natural Microbial Assemblages

Hiromi Kobori 1, Cornelius W Sullivan 1, Hiroaki Shizuya 1,*
PMCID: PMC241558  PMID: 16346621

Abstract

Samples of psychrophilic and psychrotrophic bacteria were collected from sea ice, seawater, sediments, and benthic or ice-associated animals in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. A total of 155 strains were isolated and tested for the presence of plasmids by DNA agarose gel electrophoresis. Thirty-one percent of the isolates carried at least one kind of plasmid. Bacterial isolates taken from sediments showed the highest plasmid incidence (42%), and isolates from seawater showed the lowest plasmid incidence (20%). Plasmids were significantly more frequent in the strains which had been first isolated from low-nutrient media (46%) than in the strains which had been isolated from high-nutrient media (25%). Multiple forms of plasmids were observed in two-thirds of the plasmid-carrying strains. A majority of the plasmids detected were estimated to have a mass of 10 megadaltons or less. Among 48 plasmid-carrying strains, 7 showed antibiotic resistance. It is concluded that bacterial plasmids are ubiquitous in natural microbial assemblages of the pristine marine ecosystem of Antarctica.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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