A MOLECULAR SYSTEMATIC SURVEY OF SPONGE-DERIVED MARINE MICROBES

Authors

  • JOSE V. LOPEZ

Abstract

A systematic survey is being conducted to determine the microbial diversity held within the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Marine Microbial Culture Collection (HBMMCC). The collection consists of an estimated 16,500 marine microorganisms, with 11,000 from > 150 ft seawater. To date, around 1,000 microbes have been inventoried using the DNA fingerprinting technique RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) on the small subunit (SSU) 16S (eubacterial) and 18S (fungal) rRNA gene. RFLP patterns obtained from restriction digests with the enzymes RsaI and HaeIII are used to “infer” taxonomic similarity of isolates. About 750 base pairs (bp) of the 5' portion of the 16S or 18S SSU rRNA gene was sequenced from representative isolates for more definitive phylogenetic analysis. Preliminary results show that the HBMMCC contains isolates from at least 6 major bacterial clades (Proteobacteria (Alpha, Beta, Gamma), CFB (Cytophaga, Flavobacteria, and Bacteroides), Gram+ High GC Content, Gram+ Low GC Content) with the possible discovery of novel microbial taxa.

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Published

2018-05-23