Glaciimonas alpina

The University of Innsbruck and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, isolated psychrophilic bacteria from the alpine glaciers in Austria and Switzerland and deposited them with the CCOS. This psychrophilic bacteria are extremophiles as they are adapted to low temperatures. From this cold environment, a new species Glaciimonas alpina which is able to grow through a temperature range of 1-20°C has been described. The new species could be clearly distinguished from Glaciimonas immobilis and Glaciimonas singularis based on genetic and phenoptypic data. Psychrophilic enzymes can be used in many biotechnology applications where energy saving and enhanced catalytic activity at low temperature are required. For example, cold-active enzymes like lipases and esterases can be used for organic synthesis and as additives in cleaning agents. Glaciimonas alpina contains esterase (C4) and esterase lipase (C8), oxidises L-fucose and bromosuccenic acid and utilise D-mannitol.

The four strains of Glaciimonas alpina (Frasson et al. 2015) are available from CCOS:

Glaciimonas alpina strains are available from the CCOS as actively growing cultures or cryo cultures, the whole set of all strains can be ordered at a special price.