AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Characterization of Bioaerosols Isolated from Atacama Desert, Chile
GUISELLA ESCALANTE, Carla León, Victor Campos, Roberto Urrutia, María Angélica Mondaca, Universidad de Concepción, Chile
Abstract Number: 731 Working Group: Remote and Regional Atmospheric Aerosols
Abstract Many processes associated with global change such as desertification and changes in the land use, are promoting an increase of dust in the atmosphere, that has been particularly marked in recent decades. In Chile, swirling dust are produced more frequently in desert areas where the surfaces are strongly heated by the sun. In the Atacama desert, in Huara's area (I region), Chile has come to have simultaneously, more than 70 swirling.
The objective was to isolate and characterize microbiological and molecularly bioaerosols from Atacama desert. The bioaerosols were obtained in Huara, (latitude 19º59'26,5"S and longitude 69º44 and 24,52W) using theTactical air sampler to collect small particles. the filters were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the total bacteria count was obtained by the epifluorescence technique. Culturable bacteria isolation was performed on R2A agar. The bacterial community was characterized by analysis of 16rDNA by DGGE and phylogenetic analysis of the sequences. The SEM of filter samples revealed the presence of bacterial cells with different morphological characteristics. The total count of bacteria in the filters by epifluorescence was approximately 10$^9cels/ml. After incubation of the filters in R2A agar was found that 46% of microorganism found were Gram positive and 54% were Gram negative. Preliminary results show the presence of culturable and nonculturable bacteria in the air samples of Atacama desert. These results may provide a baseline for future research and are the first samples obtained in Atacama desert, Chile.