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| Author(s): |
Danillo Oliveira de Alvarenga
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Piracicaba. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA/STB) |
| Defense date: | 2011-03-25 |
| Examining board members: |
Marli de Fatima Fiore;
Rodrigo Mendes;
Claudia Barros Monteiro Vitorello
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| Advisor: | Marli de Fatima Fiore |
| Abstract | |
The tree leaf surface (phyllosphere) offer a large habitat area for microorganisms but constitute an extreme environment. The development of microbial communities is dependent of carbon source and certain essential inorganic nutrients commonly released from the plant to its surface. However, a special group of bacteria, Cyanobacteria, is less dependent of the plant for their nutrition since several of these organisms are autotrophic for carbon and nitrogen. Therefore, cyanobacteria are particularly interesting to be evaluated in this environment. In this study, cyanobacterial strains present in the salt-excreting leaf surface of the mangrove Avicennia schaueriana were isolated and morphologically, molecularly and ultrastructurally characterized. The potential of these isolates to synthesize bioactive molecules was also evaluated. To this purpose, A. schaueriana leaves were collected in a mangrove with history of oil contamination located near to the Iriri river in Bertioga-SP. The isolation of cyanobacteria was achieved using four culture media (BG-11, SWBG-11, BG-11o and SWBG-11o) and two methods: a) smearing of leaves into solid media in Petri dishes; and b) submersion of leaves in Erlenmeyer flasks containing liquid media. After obtaining pure cultures, the isolates were grown into liquid media, and the cells were concentrated and used for genomic DNA extraction. The gene of rRNA 16S of each isolate was amplified by PCR using specific primers (27F/1494Rc), cloned and sequenced. The 16S rRNA sequences were used for the construction of a phylogenetic tree. The potential of the isolates to synthesize bioactive molecules was assessed by PCR amplification using primers specific for gene sequences encoding non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS), polyketide synthase (PKS), cyanopeptolin, aeruginosin, saxitoxin, anatoxin-a/homoanatoxin-a and microcystin. As results, thirty morphotypes were isolated in liquid media and four in solid media. These morphotypes were identified as belonging to four different orders (12 Nostocales, 9 Pseudanabaenales, 8 Chroococcales and 5 Oscillatoriales). Among the isolates, it was found a high abundance of potentially N2-fixing strains, what indicates that they possibly are an important source of nitrogen in this habitat. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of twenty-four isolates were distributed into eleven distinct clades in the phylogenetic tree and showed low similarities with described genera. In the ultrastructural analyses of these strains, the highlight was the presence of granules of high volume in a unicellular cyanobacterium and an unusual thylakoid arrangement in a homocytous filamentous cyanobacterium with apparently simple morphology. Gene sequences encoding for PKS were detected in seventeen strains, for aeruginosine in seven strains and cyanopeptolin in ten strains. Gene sequences encoding for NRPS and for the cyanotoxins microcystin, saxitoxin, and anatoxin-a/homoanatoxin-a were not found. The leaf surface of A. schaueriana presents a high number of undescribed cyanobacteria, probably as a result of the peculiar conditions of the phyllosphere and the studied mangrove. This is the first report of isolation of cyanobacteria from the leaf surface of A. schaueriana (AU) | |