By Tass
ARKHANGELSK, July 7. /TASS/. During the Arctic Floating University voyage, scientists for the first time will study lactic acid bacteria in Arctic inhabitants, the expedition leader Alexander Saburov told TASS, adding the bacteria could be used in the food industry, as well as, for example, in veterinary medicine.
“The new direction that I would highlight is the wider microbiological program. This direction is related to the study of lactic acid bacteria in the gastrointestinal tracts of Arctic animals, birds and mammals. This is an almost unexplored topic, and, of course, there is hope and a hypothesis that new bacteria may be isolated and may be used in industry,” the expedition leader said.
The study will be conducted by Alla Filimonova of the Kurchatov Institute.
Lactic acid bacteria live in the gastrointestinal tract of animals and are responsible for the synthesis of organic acids, enzymes, vitamins; they participate in the immune system, and inhibit the growth of pathogenic microflora. Currently, there is no data on the study of lactic acid bacteria in the Arctic, as scientists have only described them in microorganisms of the Carnobacterium genus in Arctic soils.
Lactic acid bacteria associated with Arctic inhabitants’ gastrointestinal tract are an unexplored group of microorganisms. There are no pure cultures of this group of bacteria isolated from Arctic samples. The study of lactic acid microorganisms will help fill this gap and provide results that are important both for biotechnology and for solving fundamental scientific problems. “They may be used in the dairy industry as starter cultures, as well as to create probiotic drugs, including in veterinary,” the scientist added. “In fact, studying such microorganisms may add to our knowledge about how animals and all living things get adapted to cold climate.”
The expedition’s due dates are from July 9 to August 1. The project’s sponsors and partners are: the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, VTB Bank (the general sponsor), the Russian Geographical Society, Norilsk Nickel, the Floating University Coordination Center at MIPT.