Microbes in the Red Sea

This research was undertaken to assess the effects of the growing industrialisation on the microbes found within the waters of the Egyptian coast. The Red Sea is home to a unique and diverse ecological systems. With industrialisation still growing at a steady pace, pollution from this is also steadily growing. Effects of shipping, the fishing market, marine traffic and petroleum industries alone leak high amounts of oil pollution into the oceans, this alongside shore run off and atmospheric pollution combined undoubtedly have an effect on the biological life of the oceans natural ecosystems. As the Red Sea is home to more than one ecosystem, it has meant that a study such as this is more beneficial on a wider scale as it gives us the chance to understand how different ecosystems are able to adapt and survive when placed under the same stress.

For this experiment 8 coastal sites and 2 lakes were chosen for sampling based on the industrial impacts that affected each area, all sites can be found along the Red Sea Egyptian coast.

Sediment samples were taken from each site with the use of a homemade stainless-steel core. 5g of each of the sample sediments were then placed into inoculation for bacterial culturing to perform a DNA extraction, which was done via the use of a QIAamp® DNA Blood Mini Kit. DNA sequencing was then followed after extraction via 16S rDNA pyrosequencing of hyper-variable regions V6 and V4as. From this analysis 131,402 significant reads of major bacterial taxa exposed there to be five main bacterial phyla dominating the sites: Proteobacteria (68%), Firmicutes (13%), Fusobacteria (12%), Bacteriodetes (6%), and Spirochetes (0.03%). When this was further studied it revealed a distinct group of bacteria mainly including marine vibrio spp, human pathogens and oil-degrading bacteria.

This suggested a ‘marine vibrio phenomena’ – high amounts of bacteria growth that can be harmful pathogens to humans and marine life alike. One of the vibrio spp, V. shilonii,  V. fortis and V. harveyi are known to have the potential to cause coral bleaching, posing a risk to the corals in the surrounding waters.  Each of these vibrio spp. are recorded as bacteria capable or surviving under harsh conditions like the ones currently being experienced. This shows that with the increase in unfavourable conditions due to a rise in pollution the abundancy of  marine life will decrease while the bacteria numbers will increase and adapt alongside the industrialisation. This could prove fatal to humans and land wildlife in the long run with an increase in pathogens being present in the environment.

The lakes surveyed showed 2 different groups, either human pathogens or no pathogens. One of the lakes used for sampling that was under a ‘protected’ site showed to have no pathogen or vibrio found within sediment analysis, this is a significant contrast in comparison to the other sample sites which all had some from of pathogenic bacteria present.

The results of this research prove that there are significant effects of pollution on the microbial community within the red sea. This study alone should encourage others to undergo further analysis to enable our future leaders to create a more sustainable way of life for generations to come and to enable current global leaders to start making more efficient methods of pollution reduction within the environments.

Original Paper: Egypt’s Red Sea coast: phylogenetic analysis of cultured microbial consortia in industrialized sites                                                                                                                                Ghada A. Mustafa, Amr Abd-Elgawad, Alyaa M. Abdel-Haleem and Rania Siam