《Identification of Antarctic culturable bacteria able to produce diverse enzymes of potential biotechnological interest》.pdfVIP

•Article • Advances in Polar Science doi: 10.13679/j.advps.2015.1.00071 March 2015 Vol. 26 No. 1: 71-79 Identification of Antarctic culturable bacteria able to produce diverse enzymes of potential biotechnological interest Ignacio Ferrés, Vanesa Amarelle, Francisco Noya Elena Fabiano* Department of Biochemistry and Microbial Genomics, Biological Research Institute Clemente Estable (IIBCE), Montevideo 11600, Uruguay Received 19 August 2014; accepted 4 March 2015 Abstract It is estimated that more than three quarters of the Earth’s biosphere is in perennially cold environments. Despite the extreme environmental conditions of desiccation and freezing, microbes can colonize these habitats through the adaptation of metabolic functions and the synthesis of structurally adapted enzymes. Enzymes within psychrophilic microbes exhibit high specific activity at low and moderate temperature, with low thermostability. In this study we used a classic microbiological approach to isolate Antarctic bacteria with cellulolytic, lipolytic, and ligninolytic activities. From 15 different environmental samples, we generated a collection of approximately 800 bacterial isolates that could grow on R2A or Marine medium at 4°C. This collection was then screened for the presence of the three types of activity at 4°C. We found that 47.7% of the isolates displayed lipolytic activity, 10.2% had cellulase/xylanase activity, and 7.7% showed guaiacol oxidase activity. Of these, 10% displayed two different types of activity, while 0.25% displayed all three types of activity. Our results indicate that cold environments represent outstanding resources for bioprospecting and the