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First report on antibiotic resistance and antimicrobial activity of bacterial isolates from 13,000-year old cave ice core.

Authors :
Paun VI
Lavin P
Chifiriuc MC
Purcarea C
Source :
Scientific reports [Sci Rep] 2021 Jan 12; Vol. 11 (1), pp. 514. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Jan 12.
Publication Year :
2021

Abstract

Despite the unique physiology and metabolic pathways of microbiomes from cold environments providing key evolutionary insights and promising leads for discovering new bioactive compounds, cultivable bacteria entrapped in perennial ice from caves remained a largely unexplored life system. In this context, we obtained and characterized bacterial strains from 13,000-years old ice core of Scarisoara Ice Cave, providing first isolates from perennial ice accumulated in caves since Late Glacial, and first culture-based evidences of bacterial resistome and antimicrobial compounds production. The 68 bacterial isolates belonged to 4 phyla, 34 genera and 56 species, with 17 strains representing putative new taxa. The Gram-negative cave bacteria (Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes) were more resistant to the great majority of antibiotic classes than the Gram-positive ones (Actinobacteria, Firmicutes). More than 50% of the strains exhibited high resistance to 17 classes of antibiotics. Some of the isolates inhibited the growth of clinically important Gram-positive and Gram-negative resistant strains and revealed metabolic features with applicative potential. The current report on bacterial strains from millennia-old cave ice revealed promising candidates for studying the evolution of environmental resistome and for obtaining new active biomolecules for fighting the antibiotics crisis, and valuable cold-active biocatalysts.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2045-2322
Volume :
11
Issue :
1
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Scientific reports
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
33436712
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79754-5