VIABILITY OF COLIFORM BACTERIA IN ANTARCTIC SOIL

Boyd, William L. (Ohio State University, Columbus) and Josephine W. Boyd. Viability of coliform bacteria in antarctic soil. J. Bacteriol. 85:1121-1123. 1963.-The distribution of coliform bacteria in soils of Ross Island and the nearby mainland was studied. None was found in almost all of the samples collected, including some from the Adelie penguin rookeries at Cape Royds and Cape Crozier and in soil at the McMurdo Base which had been recently contaminated by human sewage. Samples of pony manure left from previous expeditions were also negative, with one exception where Escherichia coli were present. Studies carried out with two freshly isolated human strains of E. coli and the isolate from pony manure showed that the death rate was extremely rapid, although the animal strain was much more resistant to the various factors of the environment causing death.