Bacterial Communities in Polluted Seabed Sediments: A Molecular Biology Assay in Leghorn Harbor

Seabed sediments of commercial ports are often characterized by high pollution levels. Differences in number and distribution of bacteria in such areas can be related to distribution of pollutants in the port and to sediment conditions. In this study, the bacterial communities of five sites from Leg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:TheScientificWorld 2013-01, Vol.2013 (2013), p.1-13
Main Authors: Petroni, Giulio, Verni, Franco, Iannelli, Renato, Chiellini, Carolina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteria
Bacteria - classification
Bacteria - genetics
Bacteroides - classification
Bacteroides - genetics
Biodiversity
Cloning
Cloning, Molecular
Communities
Contamination
Data processing
Digestion
Environmental aspects
Gene Library
Geography
Geologic Sediments - microbiology
Harbors
Hydrocarbons
Italy
Likelihood Functions
Marine
Marine pollution
Marine sediments
Metals
Microbial colonies
Microorganisms
Molecular biology
Ocean bottom
Ocean floor
Phylogeny
Pollutants
Pollution
Pollution levels
Polymorphism
Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
Ports
Proteobacteria
Proteobacteria - genetics
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics
rRNA 16S
Sediments
Water Microbiology
Water Pollutants - analysis
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Summary:Seabed sediments of commercial ports are often characterized by high pollution levels. Differences in number and distribution of bacteria in such areas can be related to distribution of pollutants in the port and to sediment conditions. In this study, the bacterial communities of five sites from Leghorn Harbor seabed were characterized, and the main bacterial groups were identified. T-RFLP was used for all samples; two 16S rRNA libraries and in silico digestion of clones were used to identify fingerprint profiles. Library data, phylogenetic analysis, and T-RFLP coupled with in silico digestion of the obtained sequences evidenced the dominance of Proteobacteria and the high percentage of Bacteroidetes in all sites. The approach highlighted similar bacterial communities between samples coming from the five sites, suggesting a modest differentiation among bacterial communities of different harbor seabed sediments and hence the capacity of bacterial communities to adapt to different levels and types of pollution.
ISSN:2356-6140
1537-744X
1537-744X
DOI:10.1155/2013/165706