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Microbial sequences retrieved from environmental samples from seasonal Arctic snow and meltwater from Svalbard, Norway

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Abstract

16S rRNA gene (rrs) clone libraries were constructed from two snow samples (May 11, 2007 and June 7, 2007) and two meltwater samples collected during the spring of 2007 in Svalbard, Norway (79°N). The libraries covered 19 different microbial classes, including Betaproteobacteria (21.3%), Sphingobacteria (16.4%), Flavobacteria (9.0%), Acidobacteria (7.7%) and Alphaproteobacteria (6.5%). Significant differences were detected between the two sets of sample libraries. First, the meltwater libraries had the highest community richness (Chao1: 103.2 and 152.2) and Shannon biodiversity indices (between 3.38 and 3.59), when compared with the snow libraries (Chao1: 14.8 and 59.7; Shannon index: 1.93 and 3.01). Second, ∫-LIBSHUFF analyses determined that the bacterial communities in the snow libraries were significantly different from those of the meltwater libraries. Despite these differences, our data also support the theory that a common core group of microbial populations exist within a variety of cryohabitats.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers that went over the manuscript. The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of Cédric Couret and the entire AWIPEV staff, Xavier Faïn and Jean Philippe Balestrieri. This research was supported by grants from EC2CO/CYTRIX (Programme National INSU), LEFE, IPEV CHIMERPOL program (399) and CL would like to acknowledge the FQRNT (le Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies) for a PhD research fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement (LGGE), UMR (CNRS/UJF) 5183, Université Joseph Fourier, 54 rue Molière, 38402, Saint Martin d’Hères Cedex, France

    Catherine Larose, Christophe Ferrari & Aurélien Dommergue

  2. Laboratoire Adaptation et Pathogénie des Microorganismes, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble 1, BP 170, 38042, Grenoble Cedex 9, France

    Catherine Larose & Dominique Schneider

  3. CNRS, UMR, 5163, Grenoble, France

    Catherine Larose & Dominique Schneider

  4. Environmental Microbial Genomics Group, Laboratoire AMPERE Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Université de Lyon, UMR CNRS 5005, 36 avenue Guy de Collongue, 69134, Ecully, France

    Sibel Berger, Elisabeth Navarro & Timothy M. Vogel

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  1. Catherine Larose
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  2. Sibel Berger
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  3. Christophe Ferrari
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  5. Aurélien Dommergue
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  6. Dominique Schneider
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  7. Timothy M. Vogel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Catherine Larose.

Additional information

Communicated by T. Matsunaga.

D. Schneider and T. M. Vogel contributed equally to this work.

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Larose, C., Berger, S., Ferrari, C. et al. Microbial sequences retrieved from environmental samples from seasonal Arctic snow and meltwater from Svalbard, Norway. Extremophiles 14, 205–212 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-009-0299-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-009-0299-2

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