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Published on: November 8, 2016
Diversity in UV sensitivity and recovery potential among bacterioneuston and bacterioplankton isolates
A L Santos1, S Lopes, I Baptista
1Center for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Campus de Santiago, Aveiro, Portugal.
Aims:
To assess the variability in UV-B (280-320 nm) sensitivity of selected bacterial isolates from the surface microlayer and underlying water of the Ria de Aveiro (Portugal) estuary and their ability to recover from previous UV-induced stress.
Methods And Results:
Bacterial suspensions were exposed to UV-B radiation (3·3 W m⁻²). Effects on culturability and activity were assessed from colony counts and (3) H-leucine incorporation rates, respectively. Among the tested isolates, wide variability in UV-B-induced inhibition of culturability (37·4-99·3%) and activity (36·0-98·0%) was observed. Incubation of UV-B-irradiated suspensions under reactivating regimes (UV-A, 3·65 W m⁻²; photosynthetic active radiation, 40 W m⁻²; dark) also revealed diversity in the extent of recovery from UV-B stress. Trends of enhanced resistance of culturability (up to 15·0%) and enhanced recovery in activity (up to 52·0%) were observed in bacterioneuston isolates.
Conclusions:
Bacterioneuston isolates were less sensitive and recovered more rapidly from UV-B stress than bacterioplankton isolates, showing enhanced reduction in their metabolism during the irradiation period and decreased culturability during the recovery process compared to bacterioplankton.
Significance And Impact Of The Study:
UV exposure can affect the diversity and activity of microbial communities by selecting UV-resistant strains and alter their metabolic activity towards protective strategies.
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