Multimodal analysis of south-eastern Black Sea sediment bacterial population diversity

Abstract

This study focused on marine sediments from the Black Sea, mainly due to bacterial diversity-induced public health / biotechnology application value. Sediment samples were gathered from 14 locations at differing depths across Turkish shores on a seasonal basis over 10 months, with bacterial identifications performed through using multimodal analytical platforms. Overall, 26 differing, predominantly Gram-positive (57.5 %) bacterial species were identified for this region, including Bacillaceae (50.0 %) and Pseudomonadaceae (15.0 %). The most dominant classes were identified as Bacilli (52.5 %) and Gammaproteobacteria (40.0 %). Ten isolates (25 %) to the species level and thirty-six isolates (90 %) to the genus level were identified using VITEK® MS and Bruker Microflex® LT/SH, in comparison to 16S rRNA sequencing results. Identified species - particularly, novel reported species - can contribute to the knowledge of microbial life dwelling upon sediments of the south-eastern regions of the Black Sea.

Keywords: 16S rRNA sequencing; Bacterial diversity; Heterotrophic bacteria; MALDI-TOF-MS; Marine sediment.