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. 2024 Sep 25;12(10):1938.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms12101938.

Endophytic Bacterial Biofilm-Formers Associated with Antarctic Vascular Plants

Olga Iungin  1   2   3 , Yevheniia Prekrasna-Kviatkovska  4 , Oleksandr Kalinichenko  1 , Olena Moshynets  2 , Geert Potters  5   6 , Marina Sidorenko  3 , Yaroslav Savchuk  7 , Saulius Mickevičius  3
Affiliations

Endophytic Bacterial Biofilm-Formers Associated with Antarctic Vascular Plants

Olga Iungin et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

Deschampsia antarctica and Colobantus quitensis are the only two vascular plants colonized on the Antarctic continent, which is usually exposed to extreme environments. Endophytic bacteria residing within plant tissues can exhibit diverse adaptations that contribute to their ecological success and potential benefits for their plant hosts. This study aimed to characterize 12 endophytic bacterial strains isolated from these plants, focusing on their ecological adaptations and functional roles like plant growth promotion, antifungal activities, tolerance to salt and low-carbon environments, wide temperature range, and biofilm formation. Using 16S rRNA sequencing, we identified several strains, including novel species like Hafnia and Agreia. Many strains exhibited nitrogen-fixing ability, phosphate solubilization, ammonia, and IAA production, potentially benefiting their hosts. Additionally, halotolerance and carbon oligotrophy were also shown by studied bacteria. While some Antarctic bacteria remain strictly psychrophilic, others demonstrate a remarkable ability to tolerate a wider range of temperatures, suggesting that they have acquired mechanisms to cope with fluctuations in environmental temperature and developed adaptations to survive in intermediate hosts like mammals and/or birds. Such adaptations and high plasticity of metabolism of Antarctic endophytic bacteria provide a foundation for research and development of new promising products or mechanisms for use in agriculture and technology.

Keywords: Colobantus quitensis (Kunth) Bartl; Deschampsia antarctica Desv.; PGPB; amyloids; bacterial endophytes; biofilm; plant–microbial interactions.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map providing specific points where plant samples were collected during the 25th Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition (January–April 2020) along the western part of the Antarctic Peninsula (WAP).
Figure 2
Figure 2
A phylogenetic dendrogram showing the positions of studied strains among each other. The percentage of replicate trees in which the strains were grouped together in a bootstrap test (500 replicates) is shown right near the branches. The shown bootstrap values indicate the confidence that can be placed in the grouping of the strains. The higher the bootstrap value, the more likely it is that the grouping is correct.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Growth rate (OD600) of endophytic bacteria in oligotrophic environments.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Examples of fungal growth inhibition of Botrytis cinerea 16884 by studied bacteria Hafnia sp. 25.2. and A. psychrochitiniphilus 15.6. Growth of fungi on 5th day of cultivation, 26 °C [39].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Biofilm formation of Antarctic endophytic bacteria in wide temperature range. (A–E): different types of temperature-dependent behavior.
Figure 6
Figure 6
CLSM imaging of 3-day-old single-species bacterial biofilms. Calcofluor White (blue channel) was used to visualize cellulose, AmyGreen (green channel) was used to visualize amyloid proteins, propidium iodide (red channel) was used to visualize eDNA, and, respectively, all three channels are combined in the bottom-right image. The scale bars indicate 20 µm. (A)—Siminovichia terrae 9.1.; (B)—Pseudomonas salomonii 10.1; (C)—Arthrobacter psychrochitiniphilus 15.6.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The cluster analysis of the different bacterial strains based on a Euclidean distance matrix.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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