THE BCCM/ULC CULTURE COLLECTION TO CONSERVE AND STUDY THE DIVERSITY OF (SUB)POLAR CYANOBACTERIA

The BCCM/ULC public collection of (sub)polar cyanobacteria is funded since 2011 by the Belgian Science Policy Office. A Quality Management System was implemented and is continuously improved since then. An ISO9001 certificate was obtained for the public deposition and distribution of strains, as part of the multi-site certification for the BCCM consortium. BCCM/ULC is currently holding 134 cyanobacterial strains and the catalogue is available on http://bccm.belspo.be/catalogues/ulc-catalogue-search. Continuous maintenance of living cultures, some of which are also cryopreserved, ensure the preservation and the possibility to rapidly deliver strains to clients for fundamental and applied research.
The collection includes 113 (sub)polar strains. In such extreme environments, cyanobacteria are important phototrophs and primary producers in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. The purpose of this collection is to gather a representative portion of the cyanobacterial diversity with different ecological origins (limnetic microbial mats, soil crusts, cryoconites, endoliths, etc.) and make it available for researchers to study the taxonomy, evolution, adaptations to environmental conditions, and genomic make-up. Thus, 102 cyanobacterial strains were isolated from the three main biogeographic zones of the Antarctic continent. In addition, 7 strains were isolated in Arctic biotopes and 4 from Siberian lakes. The molecular characterization is underway, on the basis of 16S rRNA and ITS sequences. Moreover, a Multilocus Sequence Analysis is tested on diverse strains to improve their systematics. The diversity encompasses the three main cyanobacterial orders: Chroococcales, Oscillatoriales and Nostocales.
In addition, cyanobacteria are known to produce a range of secondary metabolites (e.g. alkaloides, cyclic and linear peptides, polyketides) with different bioactive properties (e.g. antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal, anticancer). The potential of the polar strains to produce cyanotoxins is currently studied by ELISA and the detection by PCR of genes involved in their production. Due to the geographic isolation and the strong environmental stressors of the habitat, the exploration of these metabolites in Antarctic cyanobacterial strains seems promising for biotechnology or biomedical applications.