While the members of this year’s Antarctic expedition are in the polar regions right now, exploring melting glaciers and collecting samples for avian flu research as they do every year, their colleagues in the labs are building on the work of previous expeditions. Take Kateřina Snopková from the Institute of Microbiology at the Faculty of Medicine, who was able to identify a new species of bacteria in the samples she brought back from Antarctica in 2015. She and her colleagues named it Pseudomonas rossensis, after James Ross Island, where the Czech Antarctic Research Programme has one of its bases and where the young scientist once spent three months.
Pseudomonads are a widespread genus of bacteria, comprising more than three hundred and fifty species. Some can cause serious diseases in people and many are highly resistant to antibiotics, particularly Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is frequently found in clinical samples and can cause infections of the respiratory tract, urinary tract, burns and a range of hospital acquired infections. Other types of pseudomonads, however, are beneficial and the so called bacteriocins they produce could be a tool to break this resistance. “These are protein toxins that can selectively destroy related bacteria,” says Dr Snopková, who won the Werner von Siemens Young Scientist Award last year for her research into these “biological antibiotics” as an alternative to commercially used antibiotics.
Although further research is needed to reveal the true potential of Pseudomonas rossensis, it is certainly a valuable addition to the catalogue of known species. Among other things, it can produce the potentially useful toxins under extreme conditions, including freezing temperatures. “Compared to related species, this pseudomonad has a genetic make up that enables it to overcome the stress associated with the harsh conditions in the Antarctic, such as low temperatures, lack of available water and nutrients, strong solar radiation and repeated cycles of freezing and thawing,” says Snopková, explaining what makes the newly described species unique.
While the discovery helps expand our knowledge of the biodiversity of microorganisms in polar regions and their mechanisms of adaptation to extreme conditions, it is also significant in the context of the ongoing research of Masaryk University in Antarctica. After all, this year’s expedition is the twenty-first. “Our research shows that nature itself has developed ways to combat resistant bacteria. It is now up to us to understand these mechanisms and put them to good use in medicine and beyond,” says Snopková.
She smiles as she adds that naming a new species of bacteria has fulfilled one of her scientific dreams. “I originally considered naming it after Václav Vojtěch,” she says, referring to the adventurer who, in 1929, became the first Czech to set foot in Antarctica. “In the end, I chickened out when I found out that all the pseudomonads discovered in recent years are named after their geographical location or a specific feature. Bacteriological taxonomy is quite conservative in this respect. Still, naming a species was on my list of scientific wishes and it became true!”