Objective: The diversity of culturable bacteria in the six frozen soils from High-latitude area and High-altitude area were analyzed by using culture-dependent approaches.
Methods: Three solidified media were used to isolate culturable bacteria. Bacterial 16S rRNA genes of the isolates were PCR amplified using bacteria-universal primers, and then were sequenced. The resulting bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences were subjected to phylogenetic analysis.
Results: The abundance of culturable bacteria ranged from 4.70 x 10(3) to 2.57 x 10(5) colony forming units (CFU) per gram of soils (dry weight). A total of 144 bacterial strains were obtained. The bacterial isolates from the High-latitude area were affiliated with three phyla (Firmicutes, Gammaproteobacteria, and Betaproteobacteria) with Pseudomonas, Bacillus, and Paenibacillus strains being dominant. The bacterial isolates from High-altitude area could be grouped into three different phyla (Gammaproteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes) with Pseudomonas strains be dominant.
Conclusion: The culturable bacteria are abundant and diverse in the frozen soils of High-latitude and High-altitude areas. The results also showed that the culturable bacterial community structure varied among different research areas. Our data have implications for a better understanding of culturable bacterial community in the frozen soils in China.