title: Bacterial diversity in a contaminated Alpine glacier as determined by culture-based and molecular approaches.
abstract: Glaciers are important ecosystems, hosting bacterial communities that are adapted to cold conditions and scarcity of available nutrients. Several works focused on the composition of bacterial communities in glaciers and on the long-range atmospheric deposition of pollutants in glaciers, but it is not clear yet if ski resorts can represent a source of point pollution in near-by glaciers, and if these pollutants can influence the residing bacterial communities. To test these hypotheses, 12 samples were analyzed in Madaccio Glacier, in a 3200 ma.s.l. from two areas, one undisturbed and one close to a summer ski resort that is active since the 1930s. Chemical analyses found concentrations up to 43 ng L(-1) for PCBs and up to 168 μg L(-1) for PAHs in the contaminated area: these values are significantly higher than the ones found in undisturbed glaciers because of long-range atmospheric deposition events, and can be explained as being related to the near-by ski resort activities. Isolation of strains on rich medium plates and PCR-DGGE analyses followed by sequencing of bands allowed the identification of a bacterial community with phylogenetic patterns close to other glacier environments, with Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria the mostly abundant phyla, with Acidobacteria, Firmicutes and Cyanobacteria also represented in the culture-independent analyses. A number of isolates were identified by molecular and biochemical methods as phylogenetic related to known xenobiotic-degrading strains: glaciers subjected to chemical contamination can be important reservoirs of bacterial strains with potential applications in bioremediation.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Microbiologia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cappa
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Chimica Agraria ed Ambientale, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicoleta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Suciu
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Chimica Agraria ed Ambientale, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trevisan
authors.affiliation: Centro Ricerche Biotecnologiche, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Milano 24, 26100 Cremona, Italy.
authors.forename: Susanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Microbiologia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, Italy. Electronic address: edoardo.puglisi@unicatt.it.
authors.forename: Edoardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Puglisi
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Microbiologia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, Italy.
authors.forename: Pier Sandro
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Cocconcelli
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D044822:Biodiversity; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D014644:Genetic Variation; D046448:Ice Cover / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology*; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls
keywords: Biodiversity; Glaciers; PAHs; PCBs; PCR-DGGE; Xenobiotic degraders