What is it about?
The Pasvik River, located between Norway, Russia and Finland, is a sub-Arctic site polluted by wastes from metallurgic and mining activities. In order to study whether and to what extent bacteria are able to produce biofilms, and to assess whether this physiological characteristic influences their resistance to antibiotics, an investigation was performed on bacteria isolated from water and sediment collected along the Pasvik River course during two surveys (May and July).
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Why is it important?
Results showed that biofilm formation was a widespread characteristic of the isolates. Most of them were also resistant to several antibiotics, such as ampicillin (100% of the isolates) as well as cefazolin, cefoxitin, ceftriaxone, mezlocillin, nitrofurantoin and sisomicin (90% of the total strains). This study shows a significant association between biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance at inner stations both in water and in sediments in May only. This suggests that in Pasvik River colder temperature may stimulate bacterial aggregation into biofilmand simultaneously decrease bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics.
Perspectives
Since the occurrence of antibiotic resistance has frequently been linked to the presence of pollutants, the production of biofilm could represent a strategy of bacterial survival under altered environmental conditions.
Dr Gabriella Caruso
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Scienze Polari (CNR-ISP) Messina, Italy
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Bacterial isolates from the Arctic region (Pasvik River, Norway): assessment of biofilm production and antibiotic susceptibility profiles, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, October 2017, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-017-0485-1.
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