Polar Bacteria in Our Own Backyard

Canadian researchers at Queen's University, Canada, have found that bacteria which survive in extreme cold exist also in soil from temperate environments. Previously, these bacteria have been achieved from Arctic or Antarctic lakes and glaciers.

The Canadian team have developed a technique to isolate these special bacteria, able to interact with, and modify, ice. These scientists used an 'ice finger' (or lolly) to select the ice bacteria from common bacteria found in soil. From bacterial cultures these bacteria were identified using DNA analysis.

The traits found on these bacteria could be transposed in many applications. One species, Chryseobacterium sp., produces Ice Recrystallisation Inhibition (IRI).

These bacteria can be used in ice cream industry because they prevent ice cream from recrystallizing and becoming 'crunchy'. Some species trigger the formation of ice crystals at temperatures close to melting and could be used for artificial snow production.

Pseudomonas borealis not only produce ices, but is tolerant to cold (common bacteria stop their activity at low temperatures) and could produce snow in artificial ski slopes and in waste-water purification. "Selecting for rare microbes that seem to stick to ice has been fun, but now the real work begins to find out what genes are responsible for this attraction" Said Professor Virginia Walker.

Further researches on these bacteria will be much less expensive as scientists won't have to organize expeditions to Poles in order to achieve them.