| Abstract Detail
Phycological Section Hage, Megan M. [1], Fawley, Marvin W. [1], Ashworth, Allan C. [2], Hutchison, Ronald S. [3], Fawley, Karen P. [1]. Soil cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae from microbiotic crust near the Beardmore Glacier, Antarctica. VARIOUS photosynthetic microorganisms have been isolated from crusts that have formed at soil-ice interfaces in Antarctica, including many cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae. For this study, a brown crust was collected along the shore of a small frozen lake developed on an ice-cored moraine on the eastern side of the Beardmore Glacier. The lake occurs at latitude 85º07' S, longitude 166º35' E, about 500 km north of the South Pole at an elevation of 1760 m, making this one of the southern-most collections of a microbiotic crust. When placed in Woods Hole media the crust becomes green with obvious growth of cyanobacteria that resemble Leptolyngbya and Phormidium. A partial 16S rDNA sequence generated from the cyanobacterial growth was most similar to that of an uncultured Antarctic cyanobacterium (GenBank AY151728). Four cyanobacteria with distinct morphologies and one green alga have been isolated from the crust. The 18S rDNA sequence generated from the green alga was very similar to Pleurastrum insigne, a green alga previously reported from soil in northern Victoria Land. However, our isolate differs slightly in morphology from P. insigne and probably represents a distinct species of Pleurastrum. We are characterizing additional isolates by rDNA sequencing and microscopy and also examining the uncultured diversity of the crust. The research is supported by NSF grants ANT-0230696, DEB-0128952, MCB-0084188, and DBI-0070387.
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1 - North Dakota State University, Biological Sciences, 218 Stevens Hall, Fargo, North Dakota, 58105-5517, USA
2 - North Dakota State University, Geosciences, 218 Stevens Hall, Fargo, North Dakota, 58105-5517
3 - Richard Stockton College, Biology, Vera King Farris Dr., NAMS B108 Attn: Ron Hutchison, Pomona, New Jersey, 08240-0915, USA
Keywords:
microbiotic crust
Antarctica
green alga
cyanobacteria
Pleurastrum.
Presentation Type: Poster:Posters for Sections
Session: 48-104
Location: Auditorium/Bell Memorial Union
Date: Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
Time: 12:30 PM
Abstract ID:539 |
