Characterization of marine bacterial communities from São Paulo coastal regions, Brazil

• Grant number: 10/51144-4
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2010
• End date: September 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Oceanography - Biological Oceanography
• Principal Investigator: Irma Nelly Gutierrez Rivera
• Grantee: Irma Nelly Gutierrez Rivera
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The microbial ecology, in the past, used traditional methodologies as biomass determination, microscopy and culture methods to study natural microbial populations. However, when applied to prokaryotic organisms all these techniques suffering limitations and 90 to 99% of microbial cells present in environmental samples are not cultivated. After the availability of new molecular methods, the numbers of studies on microbial population's diversity increased exponentially in the last 15 years. The diversity of microbial communities in the marine ecosystem is large, little knows and is involved in many biological, physiological and biochemical processes which are important for the conservation of marine ecosystem. Chitinolytic bacteria present in the oceans are essential for cycling process of nutrients giving carbon and nitrogen for the food chain through the degradation of chitin. The objective of this project is to characterize the structure of bacterial communities (heterotrophic and chitinolytic) present in the regions of São Sebastião Channel, Baixada Santista and Ubatuba, situated in São Paulo, Brazil. The diversity of viable marine bacteria will be determined through the partial sequencing of 16S rDNA gene. Ten bacteria will be identified, at the specie level, through the total sequencing of 16S rDNA gene, multilocus sequencing analysis (MLSA) and hybridization DNA-DNA techniques. The composition of total bacterial communities will be determined, in each local, through the construction of clone libraries of 16S rDNA and chiA genes. The present project will give subsidies to know the bacterial diversity existent in the marine ecosystem of São Paulo and to support the management of these ecosystems as sustainable use. (AU)