| Affiliation: | (1) Institut für Marine Biotechnologie, Rathenau Strasse 49a, 17489 Greifswald, Germany;(2) Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Am Handelshafen 12, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany;(3) Institut für Mikrobiologie, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, Jahnstrasse 15a, 17487 Greifswald, Germany |
| Abstract: | Phage-host systems from extreme cold environments have rarely been surveyed. This study is concerned with the isolation and characterization of three different phage-host systems from Arctic sea ice and melt pond samples collected north-west of Svalbard (Arctic). On the basis of 16S rDNA sequences, the three bacterial phage hosts exhibited the greatest similarity to the species Shewanella frigidimarina (96.0%), Flavobacterium hibernum (94.0%), and Colwellia psychrerythraea (98.4%), respectively. The host bacteria are psychrophilic with good growth at 0°C, resulting in a rapid formation of visible colonies at this temperature. The phages showed an even more pronounced adaptation to cold temperatures than the bacteria, with growth maxima below 14°C and good plaque formation at 0°C. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) examinations revealed that the bacteriophages belonged to the tailed, double-stranded DNA phage families Siphoviridae and Myoviridae. All three phages were host-specific.Communicated by K. Horikoshi |
