Brno scientist discovers new bacterium in samples from Antarctica
Ten years ago, Kateřina Snopková from Masaryk University’s Faculty of Medicine brought back samples from Antarctica. Now she has announced that they contained a new bacterial species.
Despite the geographical distance, Masaryk University in Brno has a close connection with Antarctica. The university hosts the Czech Antarctic National Research Programme, which earlier this year launched its twenty-first expedition to the White Continent. Each trip brings back souvenirs, in the form of kilograms of samples of ice and earth.
It may take some time though for researchers back in Brno to process and examine the samples. For Kateřina Snopková, it took eight years, followed by an additional two years of writing, to announce her discovery of a new bacterium.
“I first finished some ongoing research, then I got started on the Antarctic samples, but in the meantime, I also had two children. I discovered that we had a new bacterial species after about eight years of scientific work, and it took some time before we were able to publish the data.”
Held in a laboratory at St. Anne's University Hospital in Brno, the samples of soil in question look very unassuming, like glass vials full of loose asphalt. To study to the tiny organisms that they contain, the samples need to be processed.
“First of all, we have to get rid of the soil itself and keep only the bacteria that live in it … We put the sample in a shaker to create a homogeneous mixture … And we then just need to pipette the sample onto the dishes, which contain a living medium that serves as food for the bacteria.”
Left heated for a week, the bacteria in the Petri dish will then grow, allowing scientists to observe their unique properties. In this case, the researchers in Brno discovered one bacterium that has different properties than all previously known species. Dr. Snopková has named it Pseudomonas rossensis and has found that it secretes bacteriocins – proteins with which it kills other bacteria.
“In such an inhospitable environment as Antarctica, it can therefore compete with other bacteria in the fight for nutrition and limited resources … These bacteria must be very well adapted to the fact that it freezes regularly there, that there are high doses of UV radiation, and that there are few nutrients to be found in that soil.”
The bacteriocins that the newly discovered bacterium produces could one day be the basis for new medical drugs, since they may be a viable alternative to antibiotics amidst current concerns about antibiotic resistance. Whether or not the Brno bacterium Pseudomonas rossensis can offer such a replacement medicine will require many more years of research.
